Wheel of Fortune
by Tsuki-no-Kurokage
Summary: Farewell::What is the reason behind Hitsugaya not turning up for Ichigo's graduation night? Final chapter. 'So this is farewell.'
1. Promises

**Promises**

_Author's Note: ...All I can say is, getting an overdosage of DiamondDust Rebellion is good for your health xp Oh, and, this is sorta like a preview to one of the scenes from the upcoming IchiHitsuKusa trilogy I'm drafting. I wouldn't make any references about it here, but there will be hints in the trilogy scene itself (I'm only writing this because I have a damned writer's block and I -desperately- need to clear it up). Oh yeah, and about the flashback scenes at the end...I sorta skipped majority of the real flashback from the navigation cd -scratches head sheepishly-_

_Disclaimer: I do not own anything concerning Bleach. All I own are some manga and D-Dust merchandise._

_Spoilers: Am asuming that Ichigo has already become sixteen years of age. If you haven't heard the navigation CD for D-Dust, there will be one point where it'll be a major spoiler. Translation is definitely not 100 percent accurate; my Jap isn't in an advanced stage yet, but I'm just writing down the idea I got while listening. I'm open to correction, to all those really-good-in-Jap ppl xp One thing I am certain of; Kusaka has a knack for making young Hitsu laugh. Seriously._

_Inspiration note: Dang, there are too many notes. Anyway, inspiration came from a chat I had with my friend, known as Mornie-Alantie99, who was the one responsible for my obsession with Bleach now (I take this chance to give her a lot of credit and huggies!). Not too long ago, we were having a marathon discussion__ about Hitsu and Kusa which lasted for a few hours over sms (xp) and then, this idea struck me. We had images of Kusa and Hitsu standing together in their academy days stuck in our head...Kusa smiling...Hitsu smiling...both of them laughing...ah...we were in heaven. You can say that this ficcie is specially dedicated to her. Her birthday passed not that long ago, too. 3rd February. Hehe. Late birthday fic... -is guilty-_

* * *

Playing the staring game wasn't exactly Hitsugaya's idea of a conversation. 

And it wasn't exactly Ichigo's either.

It had been strange - odd, even - of the orange-haired substitute shinigami to initiate a conversation that they both knew wouldn't last for long. The famous one-word answer of Hitsugaya Toushirou had kept many others away from him, knowing exactly what kind of person the white-haired taichou was when it came to conversing with him. So why wasn't it working on Ichigo?

All he had been saying was 'ah', 'hn', 'mn' and those magic words would be enough to keep even Komamura away from him. Sure, they weren't the best talkers out there, but Hitsugaya would be Byakuya the Second when it came to conversations. Komamura wold be the Third, but that's a different story. What was getting on Hitsugaya's nerves at the moment was the fact that one orange-haired doofus was running his mouth about some crap which the icy taichou didn't even bother to listen. In fact, he had been continuously relaying the message of 'go away' in his head, wishing that the substitute would just, really, **_go away_**.

Hyourinmaru was currently inactive in the taichou's mind, but he knew that if the dragon were awake, it'd be smiling at his expense, trying hard not to laugh. And it was true when people say that certain zanpakutou were similar to their wielders; Hitsugaya was practically dying for a well-earned nap right now, but a certain noisy, obnoxious someone was holding him up and depriving him of his nap time, and lookie here, you have an ice dragon in a peaceful slumber, residing in a twelve-year-old lookalike's mind and having had no trace of it awakening at any moment yet. How...luckily irksome.

The staring game had gone on for about five minutes and neither party was willing to break the silence. Hitsugaya could feel a yawn and a sigh tugging at his vocal chords, and decided to end the meaningless conversation before he would begin snapping. "So, Kurosaki, is there anything else you would like to talk about? I have some work to do and I can't afford to get held up."

...Liar.

Scratching the back of his head somewhat sheepishly, Hitsugaya noted, the orange-haired shinigami spoke, "...So...is that a yes or a no?"

Pause.

"What?"

Ichigo took in a deep breath and sighed, as if relieving himself of the nervousness Hitsugaya didn't notice earlier on. "I asked if that was a yes or a no..."

"I know what you said, Kurosaki," Hitsugaya replied rather hastily, curious about what exactly Kurosaki meant by that (well, that oughta teach him a lesson for not paying attention). "but when I asked, what, I meant...what did you mean by yes or no?"

"Well...I was wondering if you would like to, y'know, drop by school?" Ichigo asked, glancing down at the young white-haired taichou standing before him, albeit a bit shy about asking. "We're having a graduation ceremony and, even though it sounds kinda retarded and crappy, I want you to be there, Toushirou."

"Hitsugaya-taichou," the icy prodigy corrected.

The other simply shrugged. "I won't really be performing anything, except for this song I'm forced to do with Ishida," he paused and shuddered slightly. "But still, it'd be great if I could see you there. My old man's too busy and Karin has a soccer match scheduled with an opponent school and Yuzu's sorta helping Dad out, but if you could be there, I'd really really appreciate it."

Finally, the white-haired taichou gave out the sigh; he couldn't contain it any longer. "I'm very busy at the moment, Kurosaki. Soul Society has given me a task and I have to carry it out. I'm sorry, I doubt I'll be able to make it..." To himself, he thought about all of the possible consequences he could come up with if he were to leave the matter of guarding the ouin in Matsumoto's hands; One, she'd drink on the job. Two, he would be severely punished if anything were to happen as he wasn't present. Or three, things would go perfectly well, but he highly doubted that. The transport ceremony was going to be held in just one week and he really, really couldn't afford to make any mistakes on the job. It would be very irresponsible of him if he were to just...leave before it even began.

The orange strawberry stopped mid-way in rubbing the back of his neck and let his hand fall to his side numbly, face falling a little. "Oh, ok. If you're really that busy, then I guess I'll just have to ask Rukia to come along..."

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Hitsugaya thought about the possibilities if the Kuchiki girl were to go along with Kurosaki. So far, he could only get one conclusion, and he - for some reason he couldn't explain - didn't like the sound of it. At all. There had to be something he could do to prevent that possibility from happening...well, unlike any other shinigami with the exception of Byakuya, he wasn't hoping for the two to end up together. To put it bluntly, he couldn't be bothered with matters concerning the romance that the Shinigami Women Association members were crazy about. But if it was Kurosaki they were talking about, then...

Hitsugaya really couldn't explain why he was feeling so...awkward. Like he wasn't exactly thinking straight, especially when he's around with the obnoxious little (ok, not little) strawberry. And most especially if people would be talking about Kuchiki Rukia ending up with Ichigo. He didn't know why he would feel so strongly about the matter which shouldn't even be part of his business; it was like the feeling he would get whenever anyone tried to hurt Hinamori, or any other person he cared for, for that matter. But why would he feel overprotective of his relationship with the orange-haired doofus? It didn't make any sense.

...Unless it was something that even he, the genius, wouldn't be able to explain and understand.

And anyway...he was secretly hoping for Kuchiki and Abarai to become a couple eventually (the sister, not the brother).

He sighed in defeat, and gave the one responsible for it a cold glare. Seriously...being around the clown made him do things in a different manner; how the hell does one Kurosaki do it? "Don't bother asking Kuchiki. I'll try and turn up, if that's what a baka like you is hoping for..."

Chocolate brown eyes that were once dimmed with dissapointment instantly lit up with a flame. "Really!? You'll go, Toushirou!?" With another sigh, Hitsugaya gave a nod of his head and Ichigo jumped for joy. "Alright!! Now I won't have to worry about standing up there and blanking out on my lines...but, hey...you know, I **_could _**have just asked Rukia if you're really damn busy, though...why'd you change your mind?"

Blink.

"...Do you honestly think Kuchiki-taichou would let you take her to the human world?"

Awkward pause.

"...Oh yeah...that's true..."

Inwardly heaving a sigh of relief, Hitsugaya thanked himself for thinking the most plausible reason out at the last minute. If it had dragged on any longer, the baka would reveal himself to be a genius and figure out that he didn't want he and Rukia to be, well, 'together' in human terms. At least, not yet. But he still didn't really like the sound of it (and besides, Abarai told Iba who told Ikkaku who told Yumichika who told Yachiru who told Matsumoto who told him that Abarai was going to ask her out someday).

With a toothy grin, the clueless baka-face went out of his daze and spoke, "Ah well. So...I guess I'll see ya next Saturday, Toushirou?"

"...It's...next Saturday?"

"Yeah. Well, actually, it's from Friday night onwards and it'll probably last the next morning...Didn't I tell you?" Hitsugaya merely blinked, mentally shaking himself for not paying attention; sometimes an idiot's blabberings might be a good thing in the end. "Well, never mind. If you have anything on next Saturday, you can tell me. Since Byakuya probably won't let Rukia come, I'd ask Renji then."

It could be a horrible memory mistake on his part, or on Kurosaki's for that matter, but...the ceremony held for the transportation of the ouin was...next Saturday.

...Well, Abarai can't be that bad, but he wouldn't feel so right about letting Ichigo know about something that was meant to be top secret and just let him happily go ahead and bring Abarai to the human world.

But there was another reason why he agreed to take up the job to guard the ouin. Skipping out on it and attending Kurosaki's graduation ceremony would be fulfilling his promise to Kurosaki, but it would also mean breaking a promise to...someone else. It had already been long broken, though, but Hitsugaya hadn't forgotten about it. He knew that by making the first promise he would have to make sure it stayed fulfilled. Even though the initial plan would never be carried out, he was more than willing to carry it out on **his **behalf. **He **probably wouldn't dislike the idea, but Hitsugaya knew, more than anything, that the certain someone would really much prefer it if he could do it on his own.

_"...I really want to see it; on that fine, clear day of winter. I want to see it...the ceremony held for the ouin."_

'...That fine, clear day of winter...huh?'

_Laugh. "Well, I don't know about that, Toushirou. But from now on, let's have a competition to see which one of us will become a captain someday."_

_"Hah!? Oi, matte, why should we decide on having that? ...I don't have any interest in becoming a captain at all..."_

He had remembered that; he still sustained that very same interest, even after being a captain himself. Although the demand for respect was there, there were still a considerable number of people - well...namely Kurosaki - who wouldn't give him the respect which he demanded. But it had been good being a captain, he admitted. It would've had been better if...

If the promise had been fulfilled.

_"Really? Ah, I know! Hey, Toushirou!"_

_"Huh?"_

_"If you become a captain, then I'll become your lieutenant, and if it's the other way round where I become a captain, then you'll become my lieutenant."_

_"What!?"_

_"How about it? Don't you think it's interesting?"_

"...No, I don't have anything on, Kurosaki," Hitsugaya lied, after the thoughts flooded his mind and clouded his senses. "I'll be there. From Friday onwards," he added, gluing his eyes to the floor.

Ichigo's eyes brightened once more. "A...ah! Ok, so, um...it's a promise!"

He paused.

_"You're my rival from now onwards. Work harder!"_

_"...Kusaka..."_

_"...It's a promise."_

The white-haired captain turned towards the direction of his office, and stared at the doors for a moment. He turned back to face Ichigo one last time and gave the strawberry his much-desired answer. "...Alright. I understand."

And as the haori disappeared into the closing doors of the office, one Kurosaki Ichigo was wondering to himself why the strict, austere prodigy of the 10th Division had that drop-dead beautiful smile on his face which clearly belonged to that of an angel.


	2. Surprise

**Surprise**

_Author's Note: Eh...so I decided to go on with this in individual sets as 'prompts', as people call them. As this is prompt 2, prompt 3 and so on will follow until prompt 9, because Promises is actually prompt 9. So when that time comes, I will replace chapter content with prompt 1 and post Promises again (yeah, quite a hassle...gomen)._

_Oh yes, I would like to commend on Emiko Ishida's Guilty. It's currently in progress, but it's DiamondDust Rebellion-based. I like anything D-dust based, hehe. And one of my best friends, Mornie-Alantie99, will be posting an IchiHitsu oneshot shortly. It's her first oneshot on IchiHitsu, so please be nice._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach...that is so obvious._

* * *

He reached out and rubbed the leaves with his fingers. Smooth, just like the marble tiles of his house; wet and even soapy, just like the feeling of weak, dilute alkalis which he felt in the school science labs. A grin had found its way on his face without him realising it as he released the leaves from his soft, gentle grip and proceeded to move away from the growing, baby tree. Dew began to fall from the tip of the blades, letting them bounce daintily under the unnoticing eyes of passer-bys. 

The orange-haired citizen of Karakura Town had his left foot over his right, leaning against the concrete wall with a hand and the other free hand on his waist. The weight of his schoolbag did not, however, contribute in any way to him bending over like a wilting flower, his chocolate orbs glued to someone who was obviously shorter than him by at least a foot or two. But it need not be a someone, after all; why couldn't it be a some**thing **for once?

And he had been eyeing that something like a lioness eyeing a defenseless antelope.

He could just imagine the scene in his head; sharp, piercing eyes on his prey, strong, powerful limbs racing against the test of time with claws drawn, tightly gripping onto the torn pieces of antelope flesh. Kurosaki Ichigo's grin widened at the vision that the future had in store for him and traced his fingers along his target. "Excuse me," he spoke, raising his hand to get the salesman's attention. "How much is this thing?"

--

He played around with the 2B pencil in his fingers, twirling it around continuously. When he had gotten bored of it, he would stop temporarily and glance outside the classroom window, watching the creatures of the sky dance around like professional ballerinas in the air, and the natural greenery of the beautiful surrounding environment before he would go back to not paying attention during the lesson and start twirling his pencil again.

Occasionally, the orange strawberry would notice his 'classmate' doodle something in his notebook but he would always erase it soon after; probably because it was illegal for captains to submit paperwork with little ditties and simple drawings with pencil outlines and no shading whatsoever. Sometimes, Ichigo would wonder if the white-haired other actually did it often. No, not the doodling, the twirling. He seemed to have had a considerable fetish for things that could be spun around with fingers...

As the ringing signified the time to be let out of class, the students bid their farewells and the sensei did the same before the students prepared to pack their belongings. Ichigo dazedly zipped his pencil case and stuffed everything on his desk into his suitcase-like bag. Over at the corner, Matsumoto Rangiku would watch him gaze at her (rather bored) white-haired taichou seated near the window and take note of his every action. It might seem slightly exaggerated, but the blond fukutaichou could've sworn out loud when she saw how crossed the pupils looked when she caught Ichigo staring at her taichou. If he had been thinking perverted-wise, which he unfortunately wasn't in her opinion, she would've had been able to accuse him of thinking dirty with her innocent, pure kiddy taichou.

If it had been any other clueless, loveless idiot, he or she would take at least a few thousand years to figure out that something was definitely wrong with the orange-haired substitute shinigami. For Matsumoto, oh so experienced and 'mature', it had taken her a mere glance. Sure, Ichigo and her precious taichou hadn't really known each other for that long; in fact, they had met only after the whole Aizen betrayal thing was over. Taichou said so himself that he had a bad impression of the teen once he met him; before that, he would hold whoever Kurosaki Ichigo was with considerable respect. The strawberry had been a total opposite of his expections of Soul Society's hero, after all. One could not expect so much, Matsumoto figured, and her taichou seemed to have learned his lesson about setting expectations.

While Hitsugaya Toushirou seemed perfectly calm and normal, Kurosaki Ichigo was the complete opposite (again).

It hadn't been that long - maybe a few days or so - since they had come to the material world to help fend off the arrancars that target Karakura Town, but it had been long enough for Ichigo to make his stand clear, if he even had a stand in the first place. There was absolutely no doubt about it; even if he hadn't loved him yet, he should at least be infatuated with her taichou. At least. Otherwise she seriously wouldn't be able to keep up her reputation of the 'perfect matchmaker', if she even had a title like that at all.

Ah, Ichigo was making his move. The curious blond cat tip-toed behind them with a naughty smile on her face. She was going to find out exactly where Ichigo planned on taking her taichou to. Normally, he would never agree to an idiot's request of anything that was related to dating; she had personally seen to it that she visited the many of the two sexes lying on the beds of the 4th Division with white chrysanthemuns to 'dampen the mood', as she called it. The method was never effective, but the victims had been far too injured to move anyway so she was still in one piece after every visit. But now, she had just heard something which she couldn't and wouldn't believe, even if it were to take her this year and the next.

Her taichou had just said yes to the one and only Kurosaki Ichigo.

Love confession? Well, sadly not, Matsumoto discovered. All Ichigo-kun wanted was to take her taichou somewhere since he wanted to show him something. Hitsugaya had asked what it was that the baka wanted to show him, but the baka simply smiled back and told him that it was a surprise. The same, casual, cannot-be-bothered-but-must-check-it-out expression on her taichou's face totally ruined the suspense of figuring out his inner feelings since he'd rather keep them caged within himself, and that was exactly why the lazy big-busted fukutaichou had begun her case study on the two spiky-haired prodigies.

Nothing interesting really happened on their way out of school, with the exception of Ichigo trying to start up a conversation with the solemn taichou of the 10th Division. Orihime had waved and asked him loudly if he was going to join them - Ishida, Chad and she herself, apparently - for lunch together, but Ichigo simply walked away as if rejecting her and Hitsugaya just didn't bother, like always. Hitsugaya answered the other's questions as per normal; shrugging or rolling his eyes, no verbal answers basically. Matsumoto could tell Ichigo was trying, and she had been desperately trying to synchronize with his brain and send him telepathic waves to teach him on what he should do in these kinds of situations, but either telepathy was fake or Ichigo's brain was too small to be noticed and contacted.

And yet, it seemed that whatever Ichigo wanted to show her kawaii kawaii taichou, it'd gotta be something he likes. Strawberry-kun had asked if it was okay for taichou to close his eyes. Hitsugaya eyed the orange-haired Karakura High student as if he had gotten himself a brain and he would, Matsumoto expected, deny the odd request. The last time someone wanted to give her taichou a surprise by asking him to close his eyes, he ended up getting a frozen ass that took a week to melt. Poor Renji.

So, she turned and proceeded on to leave the scene; there was nothing much to see after all. It was just going to end up in the same way as how majority of the infatuated shinigami did. How would taichou make an exception, especially since this was Kurosaki Ichigo they were talking about? Sure, Ichigo-kun was the one asking him out, if that was even counted as a date, but it was Hitsugaya-taichou who didn't like him. She knew her taichou like the back of her hand, thus she knew exactly how to handle the temperamental little tensai, and Ichigo, on the other hand, didn't. He would never be able to get the chance to get to know her taichou if he was going to take action so impulsively...it looks like taichou was going to end up single if this continues...

"...Are you absolutely certain I can trust an idiot like you, Kurosaki?"

"Course you can trust me, Toushirou. I won't let anything bad happen to you; you know it."

Matsumoto turned back and hid behind a tree, peeping at the twosome as she stuck her head out. Right in front of her unfolded a scene so sweet and memorable that she felt compelled to scream and squeal like the member of the Shinigami Women Association member she was. Ichigo's face, sideways facing her, had half a grin on his side of the face as he looked at her unsuspecting taichou walking right next to him, his hand holding onto the other's small and delicate one. He had held the hand up to about shoulder level, and from the distance, Matsumoto could see exactly how tight the grip was, and how much Ichigo didn't seem to want to let the hand go. Her taichou's hand seemed to have been trying to wriggle out of the stawberry's grasp, but she could tell that he soon gave up and held onto Ichigo's hand too.

They had been moving towards another tree at a very slow and steady pace. She followed, tip-toeing and curling her fingers in front of her like a prowling cat, and hid behind yet another tree, stealing a glance at her taichou turning sideways as if facing Ichigo. She let out a soft, muffled giggle when she saw the closed eye and resumed following at a slower speed than they were. From where she was, she watched Ichigo and taichou stop at the oak tree in the park and quickly picked up the pace. Her focus was purely on the two interlocked hands that had begun to settle down, the larger hand atop the daintier one.

Ichigo bent down once more - Matsumoto wondered why he never got a backache from all that bending - and brought Hitsugaya's hand towards the black support of some sort below them. White eyebrows were raised inquisitively, as if the owner of said eyebrows wanted so much to succumb to his child-like curiosity and open his eyes to find out exactly what the idiot was trying to show him, but he didn't, in case the same idiot would make fun of him being so curious. Ichigo, on the other hand, just held onto Hitsugaya's hand as tightly as it was before and gently pulled it along the object like half-forcing a reluctant child to stroke the fur of a cat. It had taken a while for him to get used to the rough yet smooth touch, but the white-haired taichou of the 10th Division was still kept in the dark about exactly what on earth it was.

"Go on, Toushirou. Open your eyes."

At last, Ichigo witnessed the opening of the dazzling emeralds, letting the radiance emitted from such precious jewels make his insides churn with butterflies. The baby-like eyes blinked at the foreign object in sight, as the owner stroked the handles as he did before and came down to the fine, metallic body, tracing his fingers along the dried, ice blue paint. White eyebrows were knitted perfectly together, forming an adorable yet stern frown, obviously still in doubt about what exactly it was that Kurosaki was trying to show him. Matsumoto, still hiding behind another tree, was confused as well. Just what exactly was that? A human thingamajig?

"...Kurosaki...what-"

"Ah, I knew you wouldn't know what the hell this thing is, Toushirou," Ichigo replied, flashing a mystified Hitsugaya a large, toothy grin. He kicked the support attached to the foreign object - well, it was completely alien to Hitsugaya and Matsumoto, anyway - and moved it slightly further away from the tree, making it face his favorite little taichou sideways. "Come on," he offered, giving the object a pat as if it were his pet dog. "It's safe, Toushirou. I can teach you how to ride it, you know."

"I don't need your lessons on anything, Kurosaki," came the defiant reply. And if self-contradiction were possible in someone such as Hitsugaya, it was definitely acting up, because Matsumoto could've sworn she saw the white tuft of hair moving closer towards the thingamajig and sitting on it, resting a little, and avoiding any eye contact with the orange-haired other.

The blond fukutaichou smiled softly as she watched Ichigo guide her taichou through, taking it step by step, and as slowly as he could. The sunlight shone upon them, casting their silhouettes on the smooth, patch of grass, as Matusmoto turned away to leave for Orihime's. It would be best not to tell her, the 10th Division lieutenant figured, and proceeded on to leave the park. The two needed to have some time alone together, after all.

"...Kurosaki."

The orange spike shot up before glancing down at the flushing white marshmallow, lips forming a little smile. "Yeah?"

"...You still haven't told me what this thing is."

* * *

_A/N: It's pretty obvious what Ichigo had in store for his little unsuspecting taichou, but if it's not that easy to deduce, then it's okay. In one of the chapters of the trilogy, there will be a very precise scene on what actually happened in this preview, so not to worry. Just worry about having had to put some of my Bleach stories on (short) hiatus xp_


	3. Reasons

**Reasons**

_Author's Note: Well, simply speaking, I hate HitsuHina, so I included this one in the previews, once more making my stand that I, who used to be a HitsuHina fan, do not fathom whatever boundaries of love there might be surrounding these two (aka, I do not understand why people like them together). And even though I want to do so, this preview is not exactly Hina bashing, but verbal bashing is counted, no?_

_Disclaimer: I do not own anything concerning Bleach._

_Warning: Hina bashing (verbally), because I just don't like her. She's my most hated character in Bleach. And I'm worried if there's some OOCness going on too…_

* * *

Emerald orbs slid over, eyelids falling to a half-close, as if narrowing at whoever was behind the owner of said jewels which seemed to have lost their glistens. Those eyes flashed dangerously for a second, but it had gone unnoticed by the other's own eyes as the emeralds rolled to face the field they were standing on, blades of emerald grass thinning in comparison with true blue natural emeralds.

A cool gust of wind swept over the area, the grass dancing along with the wind gracefully, and as did the hair that defied all laws of gravity. Yet, neither of them had been affected in one way or another by the beauty of nature, with the sun dawning upon their features (and irking an already pissed prodigy), and the comforting grounds below their feet acting like a cushion. Once more, he turned to face the one who was responsible for his flaring temper, and glared.

Ichigo took a step forward.

Hitsugaya just took a step backward.

"Aww, geez, Toushirou, gimme a break; we've been doing this for the past half hour!" The white-haired prodigy merely glared at the complaining one before gluing his eyes to the ground, seemingly preferring the grass to the ugly face. "Ok, fine, you win, Toushirou. I'm sorry, ok? Now just-"

"Just shut it, Kurosaki," Hitsugaya cut in, expression not changing. "Words that are spoken can never be taken back, so just shut up."

The other sighed in what seemed like to be of defeat, knowing fully well that the white-haired captain standing before him would never want to listen to his reasons. But even so, that didn't mean he wasn't allowed to give his damn opinion about the matter. Rushing forward, he grabbed the taichou by the arm, startling the young prodigy out of his daze-like state.

Moments flew by like the wind brushing against their hair as they stared into each other's eyes, as if trying to fathom what in the world was going through the other's mind at the moment. They stood, still and firm, like the grass rooting to the soil, before Hitsugaya blinked and allowed his silvery white brows to meet, lips from a thin opening to a fine line.

"…Let go of me, Kurosaki."

Frowning, the strawberry replied firmly, "No."

The white-haired captain struggled against the grip nonetheless, affirmative that if he, a captain, was able to get out of a sea of hollows unscathed and without much of a trouble, why not a human whose grip was only focusing on his arm?

He tugged his arm, but it only dragged the orange-haired clown along. Glaring, he turned in an attempt to leave even if he were to drag the other across the ground, but his feet stumbled as he fell back. He tilted his head and looked back, only to meet with chocolate brown eyes blazing with an intensity to keep him still like a dog tied to a leash. Except that Hitsugaya was **no **dog, and that Kurosaki was **no **leash.

He hated to admit it, but the human's grip was far too tight. Already he could feel his fingers turning numb from the lack of blood flow, and his wrist was getting stiff; all this because of one orange-haired idiot who just so happened to go by the name of Kurosaki Ichigo. Did this mean that he had to stay and do what the idiot wanted him to do? If so, then he'd rather leave the job of tracking and purifying hollows to the others instead, and focus on looking for the arrancars. Kurosaki was just dragging his time.

Another futile attempt, and Hitsugaya sighed.

"Look, I ain't letting you go unless you stay put and listen to what I have to say!" exclaimed the rather impatient strawberry – he was never impatient around him, Hitsugaya noticed – and Hitsugaya reluctantly relaxed, letting his arm fall to his side, but gaze not averting from the grass. Ichigo took his cue and began his explanation, "I saw you at school, then leaving for some hollows so I followed you 'cuz you seemed a little out of it and all. We came to this place, and I saw you already finishing the hollows off, but you got injured so I wanted to get you healed."

"…I didn't ask for you to come," Hitsugaya replied icily, frown etched deep into his features.

"I know, I know, but you can't blame me for worrying, or Rangiku-san." At the mention of Matsumoto's name, Hitsugaya looked up. Ichigo continued, satisfied that the white-haired taichou was finally willing to keep quiet and listen, "Yeah, she's worried, all right; damn worried. Came to me and told me that you've been acting all weird since yesterday.

"So I asked you, on Rangiku-san's behalf, what the hell had happened to you yesterday? And then you told me, all about that bitch down there in Soul Society, whining about Aizen."

"…Hinamori is not a bitch," the overprotective childhood friend muttered, voice low and waning. "I merely said that she asked of me to save Aizen, not that she-"

"It doesn't matter!" Ichigo yelled, stunning the white-haired prodigy. "What matters is the shitty, lowlife fact that she asked you to save Aizen! **Aizen! **So what if the damned guy was her captain? So what if the damned guy was all nice and sweet to her? That guy never even existed! And she thinks otherwise and even dares to ask you to save him! How could you…how could you act so calm and let this thought bug you all this time!?"

Hitsugaya was silent.

"I understand that she's your childhood friend, but that doesn't mean she can just trot down to meet you via whatever-the-thing-is, acting like some bitched up princess, and tell you to save a guy who is our greatest enemy at the moment!" he paused, panting, and stole a glance at the pained expression on the other's face, realizing that he had gone too far. But it was too late to go backwards; 'words that are spoken can never be taken back', and he ain't about to shut up just yet.

"Why didn't you tell that fucked up bitch to leave you alone? If she wants her precious captain to be saved, then she can just do it herself; I won't let a whore like her tell you what to do and end up letting you…you…" he paused, breath stuck in his throat and the word left in his tongue. He daren't let the word slip, in case the white-haired captain might vent his fury, but he had already spoken of the words he wished to speak, and he damned well better let it finish.

"…die."

Hitsugaya was still silent, but he was shocked nonetheless.

"I won't let you die, Toushirou," Ichigo continued, tone suddenly reverting to a soothing, gentle one. His grip on the other's arm loosened and both hands soon held the tense shoulders. "Hell, I won't let a bitch send you to your death. Why do you…why do you care for her so much, Toushirou? Ain't making sense, even if you are her childhood friend."

"…I have my reasons," came the soft reply, before Hitsugaya looked up, locking eyes with the other. "And what of you?"

Ichigo blinked. "Me?"

Hitsugaya nodded. "You and I have no connection to each other; we know little about each other amongst the two of us. You might have been…nice to me all this time, worrying about me, concerned about me; but I don't need that from you."

The words cut Ichigo's heart like a blade, but he allowed nothing of his inner feelings to show, and Hitsugaya continued, "We're not friends, Kurosaki; we're merely partners in the upcoming war to defend Soul Society and Karakura from the invasive threat. We have nothing to do with each other. You know that, but you still act like you know me, even though you don't."

Ichigo was, in turn, to be silent as of the moment.

"So why is that?" Hitsugaya asked coldly, eyes not leaving the other's. "Why do you care for your comrades, but spend much more care on me? You and I both know that I don't need, and I don't want, your protection and concern. I know how to handle myself, Kurosaki, but you still decide to act like an idiot and butt into my problems, thinking that you're actually helping. However, the help is not needed and I will not return it." He stepped away from the substitute shinigami, feeling the warm touch leave his shoulders. "So why do you even care?" he asked once more.

Ichigo stared into the mesmerizing emeralds that held nothing but pain and curiosity, and closed his eyes with a smirk and a scoff as he went up to hold the other by the shoulders again, bringing him closer in an embrace as arms wrapped themselves around the taichou's lithe figure, before he released his hold and opened his eyes again only to meet emeralds holding curiosity alone. The pain was gone. His smirk widened further.

"I have my reasons too," he answered, letting go of the taichou's shoulders and turning around, flashing a grin as he did so, before he shunpo-ed away into the distance, leaving a very confused, a very inquisitive, and a very red Hitsugaya alone.


	4. Kurosaki

**Kurosaki**

_Author's Note: This is for all those who support HitsuKarin, I suppose…no offense, but this pairing is totally wrong. It's easy for me to state my reason, and it's all here in this preview. I'm not asking anyone to change their opinion; I'm just stating my point. I mean, we can't just all assume people might have the same viewpoints as each other. We have to make our stand…right? -is unsure-_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach._

_Spoilers: This will be the __**only **__reference to the anime. And the filler which nearly made me hate Karin…it's bad enough I hate soccer/football._

"Kurosaki!?"

What the hell.

He couldn't believe what he had just heard.

She, the girl he suddenly became so concerned about, is the sister of the blockhead who just so happened to be missing in action ever since he and he had a 'talk' one, two weeks ago? Well, ok, maybe the 'talk' part was a bit redundant, but the fact still remained that the baka Kurosaki had gone missing for some odd reason he had yet to find out about (and he will, of course).

He sighed, taking off the load off his chest a little; seriously, unforeseen circumstances seemed to run in the genes. "I see…so no wonder…"

_Yeah, no wonder she can see me._

"Ah! Taichou!"

Hitsugaya turned, watching his fukutaichou do some of her silly stunts and blabber on about some crap he wasn't exactly paying attention to. He was just…watching. Although the attention away from him was short-lived, it was long enough for him to realize the connection between Kurosaki and his _imouto_. The longer he stared, the more he realized just how…eerily alike the two of them were, aside from the fact that they had high amount of reiatsu (yeah, probably ran in the genes).

Perhaps…perhaps…

"Wahh," Karin breathed, dragging a dazed Hitsugaya back to the present, who still stared at her but with a raised eyebrow, as if wondering why she was suddenly so…intrigued, so as to speak. "I didn't know you were such an amazing person, Toushirou!" There she goes again; what with her Toushirou thing. It just made her look like…

"And to think you're still just an elementary school student!" she continued with a smile, patting the other on the head and ruffling his snow white hair like as if he were her younger brother – he wouldn't want to be, of course – which sent Matsumoto into a stifling fit.

Hitsugaya twitched noticeably as he tried to rein his anger. "Elementary school student…" Oh, for the love of—he was **not** what humans call an elementary school student, because as far as he was concerned, he had already graduated from the only academy in Soul Society, and he was definitely no longer studying about anything, so he was, by far, not an elementary school student. He didn't even think he looked like one anyway; he had already taken a lot of naps, considering the fact that a captain like he should not have much time on his hands, and he had grown…well, a bit. But he still grew!

"Huh? What? Did I say something wrong?"

As his pighead of a fukutaichou started laughing away, Hitsugaya scowled and pushed the raven-haired female's arm away from his hair; looks like some idiocy and cluelessness ran in the genes too. "How many times must I tell you before you get it right!? I am **not **an elementary school student!!"

_**--Prompt 04--**_

Stares were sent all around. It first started from Ikkaku, then Yumichika, then Renji, then Matsumoto and finally a not-caring Hitsugaya who was busy sipping his tea and lying on his back (he was actually staring at the moon and not at them). The strawberry blonde shifted about in her position while Renji gave her a slight push, astounded that she could still have her balance even after he pushed her another time, though she did get a little irritated.

The white-haired captain was just being himself and not bothering with the matters concerning the imbeciles doing their own stuff in their corner over there, ten cm away from him. He had wanted to isolate himself from them, but the roof had limited space, after all. So, he just waited; waited for them to say what they wanted, but they never said anything for the next fifteen minutes.

His patience soon wore thin. Fortunately, his cup was still half-full at the rate he was sipping while admiring the moon. Now he heard hushed whispers amongst the others; sigh, they were being so weird and out of it. Well, they were always out of it anyway, but not this out.

The seconds ticked by. It had been two hours since the staring contest began.

And only two challengers remained.

"…Taichou," Matsumoto spoke, breaking the outrageously long silence. "Just now…did you really have to do that?"

Hitsugaya paused, before he took another sip from his tea. "Do what, Matsumoto?" he asked, feigning ignorance.

"You know! Just now! To Karin-chan!" But she failed to pique any interest in the subject from her captain. "Was it really necessary to do that to her?"

"I was going by the rules, Matsumoto. You should understand that," came the cold reply. "Humans aren't supposed to know about the shinigami; if they do, we have to erase our own existence from their minds."

"But…"

"No buts, Matsumoto. I won't hear of any of your excuses," the white-haired taichou cut in, taking yet another sip like as if nothing's had happened. "And I don't want to hear you say a word about this anymore hereafter. Is that clear?"

The orange-haired woman moaned, scratching her head in frustration. "Hai, hai, taichou..." _Just won't admit you like that girl, huh, taichou?_ she mumbled under her breath incoherently without realising that she had just thought aloud.

"I told you before, it's different." In the same manner, the white-haired captain stood from his position and turned to leave the roof, probably not going to return to the same roof for that night. "I don't like Kurosaki's sister, and I certainly don't want to."

"Then," Matsumoto spoke, in a somewhat challenging manner. "why did you watch her from afar, taichou? Why did you get so worried? I'm sure you must feel something if you did all that for her!"

...Either she was challenging him, or she was just being plain annoying.

Hitsugaya sighed. "Matsumoto, hear me." Her expression changed in an instant at the increased seriousness in her captain's tone; he wasn't joking about this. "I will only say this once, and just once.

"...I treat Kurosaki's sister as my own."

Matsumoto sucked in an intake of oxygen sharply. "You don't mean..."

"Yes," Hitsugaya replied, just as coldly as before. "When I first saw her, I already had the feeling that she had high reiatsu, and was suspecting that she could be related, if not, involved in some way with Kurosaki. I only watched her because I wanted to confirm my suspicions, and I only reached out to help her because I felt like protecting her. For some reason," he added, gluing his eyes to the roof tiles. His fingers curled into a clenched fist. "...I have no other reason as to why I have to protect her. And it has nothing to do with Hinamori; she and Kurosaki Karin are two separate matters that I have become involved in. However, my resolve is still the same. To protect...the both of them."

His lieutenant said nothing.

"Hinamori is my childhood friend, one of the only few people who wasn't scared of me. And Kurosaki's _imouto _is someone I happened to know recently, someone who is very much like that baka." He paused, before he sighed and continued, "My resolve to protect Hinamori stands clear. My resolve to protect the younger Kurosaki may be similar, but it is different. I only wanted to protect her, because I felt something like a bond between her and I, and that bond is the same bond I share with Hinamori.

"...That's why...I only treat Hinamori and Kurosaki Karin as my younger sisters, nothing more, nothing less. And that is why I can't..."

When emeralds met blue-grey, blue-grey met determination and depression mixed together.

"I can't...say that I like the girl, because it is, after all, in the end, different."

A soft comforting smile found its way on Matsumoto's lips, as she closed her eyes and allowed the moonlight beam upon her features. "All right, taichou. I understand. But you know, taichou," she added, opening her eyes. "since you don't like Karin-chan and Momo-chan..."

"...?"

"Then why don't you like Ichigo-kun!? I'm sure you two will look great together as a couple!! Ne, ne, what do you think, taichou!?"

A flustered child prodigy resisted the temptation to give his fukutaichou's ass a super power kick that would send her flying off the roof and plunging to her doom, and settled back down on the roof, forgetting why he had gotten up in the first place. "If you really want to know what I think, then I think you have issues, Matsumoto."

"Ehhhh? Taichou, _hidoi _(mean)! I'm telling you, on basis of my enriching years of sexual and dating experiences, that you and Ichigo-kun are a perfect match made in heaven! You should think about it, taichou! Really!" squealed the strawberry blonde who began fantasising m-rated things which would certainly send the kid taichou to the mental hospital should he ever find out how explicit his fukutaichou's imagination could get.

"And I'm telling you, on basis of my eventful years of captaincy, to get your lazy ass off the roof and get back in there to work on the report back to Soul Society!!" he yelled at the top of his voice, stunning the lazy cat senseless as she leapt to her feet, looking at her captain while masking her fear of offending him while he was in this state of anger and frustration.

"Hai, taichou! I'll go work on it straight away! Uh-huh, you can always count on Matsumoto Rangiku for the job!" she self-flattered, giving herself a hard pat on her chest with a clenched fist. As she turned, she casted her taichou a glance which he could not comprehend, and smiled warmly. "...You know, taichou? I'm beginning to think that you want to protect Karin-chan not because you see her as your sister, but because she is Ichigo-kun's sister, right?"

Hitsugaya blinked, but said nothing.

Matsumoto's smile widened at her taichou's changed expression. "And because you don't want Ichigo-kun to be hurt when he finds out that his _imouto _got hurt while he was gone, you wanna take over his job to protect his family so that he could do whatever he's doing out there without worrying about his family, ne? So, in the end, you're just saying this...because you don't want anyone to know that you actually like Ichigo-kun, right? Right?"

So, taichou...you know you always keep calling him Kurosaki, Kurosaki. Why not try calling him Ichigo someday?, she wanted to add, but didn't dare to (the last time someone asked him if he liked Kurosaki more or Hinamori more, taichou instantly froze that person and used him as a warning letter for anyone who dared pass by his territory.

The white-haired captain suppressed a growl and regained his composure, shaking his head once. "No, you're wrong, and that's because you're an idiot. I, for one, do not like Kurosaki Ichigo, and this 'not wanting Kurosaki getting hurt' is just yet another stupid figment of your imagination, Matsumoto. Go and be a non-idiot by doing the report, and sending it **by 3 tomorrow morning**. It could take your mind off whatever happened today. Is that clear?"

_Groooooaaaaan...taichou's still not admitting it..._

_Well, never mind. I'll just have to work harder next time! And next time, I will definitely get taichou to admit it!_

"And by the way, Matsumoto," Hitsugaya spoke, folding his arms. "If you're thinking about trying harder to get me to admit that I like Kurosaki next time, stop. All this will do you no good; it'll only contribute to killing your brain cells and prevent you from being able to complete your work efficiently," he continued dryly, taking one last sip from his cup of tea.

..._Taichou can read minds? Taichou can read minds!! Oh my gosh, taichou can actually read minds! That's sooooo cool...I have a psychic boy for a taichou...heehee._

_Well, even if this time doesn't work, there is always a next time. Playing matchmaker is fun!_

"Matsumoto. Stop staring at me and go do the crapped up report **now**."

_...Maybe it'll be a heck lot more fun if taichou wasn't such a grumpy person._

_A/N: I know, I know. 'Tis one of my not-so-good prompts, mainly cuz things are kinda going downhill for me (I nearly flunked history and geography, worried for math test which I prompty rushed through; falling sick quite often, kneecaps in pain, etc). And I'm so sleepy...medicine is making me drowsy...so I wrote this while I was drowsy and sooo...yeah..._

_-yawns- Jaa, dewa mata... -sleeps-_


	5. Zanpakutou

**Zanpakutou**

_Author's Note: Eep. Gomen, gomen...I really had writer's block with this, as did with the trilogy. As the title may suggest, this has something to do with Zangetsu and Hyourinmaru. I...don't really have much to say. Except that I think if it's possible between Ichigo and Hitsu, then why not their zanpakutous? Surely there must be some chemistry between them or something..._

_Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. At all._

_Inspiration: Remember during the Arrancar arc, Hitsugaya said that he was trying to talk to Hyourinmaru?_

* * *

_The metallic taste of blood slowly filled the tip of his tongue as he slowly trudged his way through the thick snow. Ice and hail had been penetrating him ever since he entered his inner realm, something which he didn't remember happening since he last visited. Then again, it was challenging to find the time, and all those promises he made his zanpakutou had become empty and pointless; Hyourinmaru once threw a tantrum when he refused to enter the world of blizzards and vastness just so that he could complete the following day's paperwork and didn't talk to his wielder for the next three weeks._

_And yet, it was after these three weeks did the young dragon wielder realize that it was vital to continue conversing with his zanpakutou (who was still rather pissed, by the way). Hitsugaya let a sigh slip past him and continued on his way through the snow, hoping to find the dragon during his little journey._

_The grounds rumbled as a roar echoed. The blizzard raged on, but the white-haired wielder was not willing to give up so easily, especially since he was just this close to reaching his zanpakutou's spirit. The snow beneath him disappeared into nothingness as the ice cracked, the freezing waters trapping his foot. He merely forced it out and carried on; it was evident how both of them were feeling during that period of time. Dark, looming clouds fell to the earth as the heavens opened itself, a ray of light dawning upon the young captain's features._

_'This is just like...last time...'_

_"...Toushirou, you have come at last."_

_"...Hyourinmaru." Hitsugaya glanced at the glistening scales of the dragon before him, watching the diamonds and crystals shed off to become part of the cold atmospheric air. The wings of ice embraced him; kept him within the shield-like ice, as if the master of said wings had a wish to speak with him privately, despite the land being icily barren and standing alone with not a soul other than them in sight. He could feel the familiar warmth - which was actually extraordinarily cold - from the dragon's fine snout, breaths pensive and seemingly agitated by something on the mind of the winged ice dragon._

_A strikingly coldness engulfed his fingers as he ran them across the dragon's perfectly fine and icy jaw, allowing the never-melting ice stick to them. A puff of whiteness floated on the surface of the clouds of the heavens; the magnificent being of ice watching his wielder with the warmth from the crimson hues, seemingly lost in the sea of thoughts. "Toushirou, there is something of great importance that I must inform you." As the words of wisdom flowed out of the dragon's jaws like a river, Hitsugaya locked eyes with his zanpakutou, face contorting to a deeper frown than usual. Tell me about it, seemed to be the message behind the intent gaze._

_"You may have realized, child, that the one you call Kurosaki has gone missing for quite some time now." Hitsugaya's scowl was firmly carved on his features; he hadn't really known why, but every time someone spoke of the dim-witted shinigami, who had been missing in action for some strange reason that no one could come up with, he'd feel as if he was...responsible for his disappearance. He couldn't exactly explain it; he didn't know if Hyourinmaru could._

_There was much more he could learn from his other self. The dragon held more wisdom than he ever could; more strength than he could ever provide himself with; more effectiveness that could be brought across rather than just some simple, plain Japanese and mere kidou spells; and more of his witty jokes if the time called for them. If there were things he didn't understand, which **was **a rarity, there was always his zanpakutou who was ever willing to impart whatever knowledge, wielding it and parrying it like his own personal weapon._

_The dragon sensed the uncertainty from his inquisitive wielder, holding himself back from simply smiling at the young one for being rather out of sorts lately. "Don't get too anxious, young dragon; remember that your emotions are tied to this world. If you were to let them run free, this world runs with them."_

_A silvery white eyebrow twitched at the seemingly out-of-place interpretation of a disappearing world (well, he had to admit, other than the dragon's unparalleled wisdom and power, there was that tendency to illustrate matters in a more imaginative way) before the white-haired captain let loose a sigh that was tugging at his throat, easing himself a little. Perhaps he **had **gotten tenser than usual when he entered the wintry domains...but he just couldn't really understand why he had an unusually edgy feeling in the gut before he even decided to bring Hyourinmaru out for communication (A/N: Which reminds me...I didn't know shinigami could materialize their zanpakutou in blade form in a gigai...the wii game seemed to have suggested that, and so did the anime and manga. Mmn...wakaranai kedo, mou ii sa)._

_That's right...why did he want a conversation with Hyourinmaru in the first place? Had it been due to the fact that he had gotten, dare he say it, bored watching Matsumoto and Ayasegawa train for bankai? He did feel like bathing in an ice cold onsen just to wake himself up, after all...he had no recollection of training for his own bankai in the same manner as the two of them were doing right now. He just thought they were idiots...which they were, obviously._

_But no, it wasn't because he was bored...perhaps he just felt like having a chat with the dragon for a moment? He knew keeping in touch with his inner self was important... The recent fight with the arrancar had made him realize the seriousness of the war between Soul Society and Hueco Mundo, especially since his fight with Shawlong had not gone as well as he had expected. He had yet to apologise to the dragon for expending the shortened limit of power and wearing him out just by those few attacks; after all, he hasn't the only one who was injured by the sharpness of the pincer-like porcelain._

_Then again, he remembered Hyourinmaru's distant voice telling him not to worry too much about it; it hadn't been because he wanted to talk to Hyourinmaru. Whatever the reason for his entering the world was, he wasn't sure, but it wasn't going to be vital to know...right? Well, wrong._

_"It was I who wished to talk to you, Toushirou; that is why you have come here again," Hyourinmaru answered for the slightly startled white-haired captain. "It is about the Kurosaki boy who has gone missing, for his disappearance has left me an unsettling presence which tells me that things aren't as simple as it seems."_

_"You mean...Kurosaki was forced to leave?" Who would do that anyway, Hitsugaya wondered to himself. The Kurosaki he knew wouldn't abandon his family and friends without giving anyone the reason why, and if he had been forced to leave..._

_Hyourinmaru shook his head anyway. "Nothing of the sort, although it seems that way," he murmured, unfurling the glistening wings of ice. "It is most likely he has been given a proposal, or a threat, therefore leaving without saying a word. But I wouldn't say he was 'forced' to leave; everything in the universe has a choice, and he chose to leave in order to prevent anything bad from happening. It is my opinion, and yours as well, Toushirou. Kurosaki did not go missing."_

_It was true he hadn't thought of Kurosaki as a missing person; just...gone for some reason no one could explain. But the logic that the dragon's mind went by was not nonsense; it was very likely that whatever Hyourinmaru was speaking of was true. Why hadn't Kurosaki said anything, then? Did he know that he had to leave in order to protect something or someone from getting hurt? Who was going to hurt them anyway?_

_The answers were still hidden away from his eyes, but he would search for them on his own. No, he would search for the one **with **the answers to get the answers he wanted. Then he could figure out what the hell was going through the idiot's mind to leave so hurriedly without leaving a word behind or even give them a trail of his reiatsu (at least) to lead them to where he was. The baka was horrible with reiatsu._

_A tingle clouded his senses; now what was that? It felt eerily familiar...Kurosaki?_

_"Zangetsu is back." Hitsugaya locked eyes with the dragon extension of his soul when he heard the rather shocked words leave the other's icy jaws like the puff of whiteness moving along with them. "The presence that I have not sensed for weeks...it has returned. And that means his wielder is, too, back in his spiritual body."_

_Kurosaki had returned...that was far too sudden. And awfully suspicious..._

_"At any rate, I have to look for him; I can't trust that baka to do anything right, especially with the arrancar coming at any point of time they want," the young prodigy replied, back turning to face the dragon's ice belly only to stop in his tracks as the serpentine spirit spoke to him once more._

_"Toushirou, do not be rash; from what I can tell, the one you worry about is not alone in his fight." Hyourinmaru almost smiled at the crimson flush on his young wielder's face without him even realizing that he was blushing in the first place; his hunch was right, after all, when it told him that his precious Toushirou had changed after meeting that substitute shinigami. "Zangetsu will be aiding him. There is no one else better than he who can help Kurosaki now. For now, you should worry about your own wounds in case they reopen."_

_"Wounds?" Hitsugaya blinked in confusion, searching himself for any evident sign of blood or cuts, but found nothing. "Hyourinmaru, I am not injured in any way..."_

_"You are, young one. Though your mind denies it, your heart doesn't." The dragon pushed his snout against the white-haired captain's chest; Hitsugaya could feel his entire being engulfed by the numbing coldness of their intimate contact. "And everything about you is tied to me and this dimension, Toushirou. You may not have noticed, but this world was melting before you came here. And when the human's return was confirmed, the ice started forming once again. Have you not been sleeping much lately?"_

_...Well, what the heck was Hyourinmaru talking about?_

_"Hyourinmaru, you know very well that I don't sleep much..."_

_"Sleepless nights stunt your growth." He caught the evident twitch and felt his master's tense nerves. Ice fell off the sides of his jaws as he cracked a smile. "You've gotten so worried over Kurosaki's disappearance that you have stopped sleeping altogether; I haven't felt this anxiety for decades, Toushirou, but I know very well what kind of anxiety this is that you are going through. Would you rather have that human call you 'little one' all the time?"_

_Now why was he feeling so dizzy? Ah, right...the blood was rushing to his face..._

_"Hyourinmaru, another word about my height and I will stop talking to you for all eternity."_

_"You can't do that, young dragon; I can always drag you down here while you sleep."_

_"Then I won't sleep."_

_"But you'll shrink."_

_"Hyourinmaru...!" The dragon chuckled as he flapped his wings and ascended towards the frozen skies, leaving his frustrated wielder to stand alone in the midst of the ice plain. "Hyourinmaru, you get back here!!"_


	6. Where

**Where**

_Author's Note: This is a short one...I think. Please do be warned that there is a certain extent of OOCness due to the need for cheesiness towards the end. And it's unfortunate, but the trilogy will have to be pushed further back before posting. I'm sort of in the midst of re-writing the whole thing (...even after spending months on 6 chapters...) and trying to make it longer so that more events can be shown. Some of them are quite crucial to the story, while the rest are just for entertainment purposes o.O_

_Disclaimer: Kubo Tite is the amazing creator of Bleach. I am just an unknown who likes Bleach. I do realise that I've forgotten what Hitsu has said to Ichigo before he left..._

* * *

He glanced out into the night sky, watching the stars dance about on the stage of darkness where the moon had been their sole audience in the world of air. Diamond-like glows illuminated the dullness, a beam of pearl hue embracing his entire being; he closed his eyes while basking in the moonlight, a sense of solitude spreading over him like a blanket covering the body beneath it. The hair of equal purity, likened to that of the authencity of silk, shifted about on the tiles dyed with a paint of brown, bearer of such hair unwilling to open his eyes to glance at the pearl and diamonds of the night sky.

However much he tossed and turned, he still found himself feeling restless. Slight muscle aches and a few torn patches of skin were just minor injuries which he had gotten used to; despite that, it felt as though his back had been ripped apart by that Espada's ridiculous number of tendril-like arms again, the skin peeled away and the flesh exposed to the dirt in the surrounding air, germs feeding into his bloodstream. It stung. Horribly, at that. And the damned gigai was not helping at all; he turned to his right again, only to pause in his thinking of turning to the left as he heard a sickening crunch from his back. Teal eyes opened at the appearance of the crack; the lithe figure laid himself on the rooftop, remaining in the same position for the next two hours. But nothing seemed to change.

...Hitsugaya couldn't seem to get his mind off something that was bothering him...in one way or another.

He couldn't sleep. It was something he had been used to since young; nightmares that plagued him kept him awake, strings of mysterious dreams during his course at the Shin'ou Reijutsu In never failed to make him sit up straight and scare the daylights - or rather, 'moonlights' - out of the poor, pitiful souls who had to deal with his so-called sleepwalking habits of frequent trips to the bathroom, only to find the floor and sinks completely covered in ice, and now when the visions finally stopped replaying in his mind he found himself completely unable to get a wink of sleep. It was illogical.

He attempted to get Hyourinmaru to shut up in his head (he was laughing for some reason he couldn't explain and didn't want to find out...), but the dragon simply did not seem to oblige. He hinted to the young wielder, the reason why Hitsugaya was kept awake lied somewhere else, and not that he was feeling edgy nor subconsciously avoiding yet another nightmare of his, and just resumed carrying that victory smirk forming at his jaws.

It was times like this when he hated how his zanjutsu shihan - instructor - would constantly remind the class that zanpakutou is the extension of one's shinigami soul and that it oftens reflects the wielder's personality; the sheer irony behind it all, Hitsugaya would mutter to a certain person sitting in front of him, that if a zanpakutou reflected the wielder's personality, then how could he explain the instances whereby some shinigami couldn't hear of their zanpakutous' names if they were so alike. That person would simply smile back and joked that if whatever shihan said was true, then he wouldn't be looking forward to seeing his friend attempting to hear for his zanpakutou's name. Hitsugaya would often give a scoff and reply that he himself wasn't about to be curious about the other's zanpakutou, seeing that if someone so cheerful like that could have his personality reflected in a sword's spirit, he wasn't going to like two feathers of the same bird hanging around him all the time. Kusaka merely laughed.

And yes, he still firmly believed that it was nothing but pure irony. If Hyourinmaru was the reflection of his personality, he wasn't acting like a very good mirror at all. But then again, whoever said that the reflection was going to be one hundred percent accurate in the formation? Zanpakutou lived not by their wielders' personalities, but by their own. They had a mind, like their wielders; they had their own way of doing things, like their wielders; they developed their own habits, like their wielders. It was just that sometimes, those two would intertwine with one another and form one whole state.

Most of the time, he believed that the Hyourinmaru stuck in his head was not his reflection alone, but with someone else's as well. It just hurt to think about it.

Shaking his head for no reason in particular, he turned to his left, resting his head against his left arm while his free hand stubbornly picked a nice spot in his pocket. Hyourinmaru was still being unusually energetic for the day; it might've had been caused by the fight with the Espada, but yet he had a gut feeling that it was due to the fact that they could finally talk in peace when it lasted. Aside from Hitsugaya's poor attempts to get the dragon to descend from the frozen skies, Hyourinmaru had dryly commented that the lazy ash cat was ready to materialise, as long as her wielder was willing to stop being her 'sluggish self' and actually start on the training; not to mention that the peacock-like zanpakutou spirit was utterly unwilling to get himself dirty and he made up his mind against materialising once his wielder began smashing his sword form against a rock. He claimed that his body was full of ugly scratches and didn't want to lose any of his beautiful features any more and caged himself in.

As Matsumoto said, like poles repel. Just in a supremely ironic way.

While on the topic of the Espada, Hitsugaya couldn't help but think about Kurosaki. He heard that he had gotten himself pretty badly injured by a particularly strong Arrancar, as explained by Abarai who arrived at the scene when the Arrancar left Kurosaki standing there, like the idiot he was - of course, it was Hitsugaya who added the idiot part and not the 6th Division fukutaichou - and telling the red head how he felt incapable of protecting anyone with his current strength. He never saw the strawberry idiot ever since. But that very day, he couldn't just shrug it off; it was Kurosaki's reiatsu lingering in his senses, clouding them vaguely but shortly forgotten during the battle with Eight Hands. And now, he was sure; from amongst all those capable of spilling out reiatsu, Kurosaki's was the strongest.

Now that he thought about it...it was one particularly strong reiatsu that was sweeping over him that stunned him restless since earlier. But why did it have to be that one nutshell of an idiot's, of all nutcases that came along with him for this mission? If it were someone, even Matsumoto, who was leaking the reiatsu, at least he could spend a short time reprimanding them, but if it was Kurosaki...he'd most probably take up all dawn trying to persuade, or rather convince, him that shinigami ranks were not to be taken lightly and was just a matter of respect shown to a captain by referring to him by his title. He wasn't willing to waste that much time on an idiot who couldn't understand at least that much.

Just as he was about to forget it and try to sleep, a trembling in his right hand compelled him to open his eyes for the umpteenth time of the night. Sighing, he sat up and pulled the clamshell phone out of his pocket, flipping it open. A report automatically appeared on the screen, kanji and hiragana filling up the entire space. He scanned it, eyes widening slightly as he reached the bottom where he scrolled down; he was right, they **were **preparing for something. And they had distracted him and the others by fighting them so that they could buy themselves more time. He just didn't expect that their target all along had been...

Snapping it close, the white-haired captain stuffed the phone in the pocket and grabbed the gikon pill dispenser; already, he could catch a dim ray of light from beyond the horizon as he glanced out into the once night sky. Leaping to his feet, he turned to his mirror image and instructed him to wake everyone else up, informing them of an emergency signal Soul Society had just sent him. The soul nodded, and entered Inoue Orihime's house via the window to first inform Matsumoto.

Hitsugaya turned, standing before the slowly rising sun before his frown deepened. He took off in the direction of the reiatsu that was clouding his senses right from the start, ready to tell him of the latest news which he was sure he wouldn't like to hear.

As he had expected, Kurosaki was up by the time he reached there, staring at his hand dumbly. He knew exactly what the orange head was thinking of; and as Hitsugaya had expected it, though he somehow didn't seem to like it very much, Inoue Orihime came to Kurosaki before her apparent leave. The white-haired child prodigy waited by the window for the idiot to sense him; of course he couldn't, he looked too caught up in the familiar reiatsu by his hand, as if he was hurting his brain trying to figure out whose it was even though his heart knew exactly the answer behind the unneeded question.

He couldn't take the idiocy anymore. "It's Inoue Orihime's, most probably," the first thing he said to the baka whom he had thought was missing in action all this time. Kurosaki turned, still looking as dumbfounded as he was before. Hitsugaya could easily confirm that, no, it wasn't that he didn't seem to like it very much; he totally disdained it. He just couldn't figure out why. "Come with me, Kurosaki. It's an emergency."

But Ichigo didn't budge.

"...Toushirou? You were here all along?" For some reason, he sounded awfully soft for someone who had monstrous reiatsu. Hitsugaya tried not to show much of his emotions, keeping an indifferent face if he was in the first place. "You knew Inoue came here?"

Okay, now he was totally hating the strange feeling he was getting. "Like I've said earlier, Kurosaki, it's an emergency. Soul Society has just sent me a brief report on it, but nothing more. If you would like to know more, you would come with me now."

When all he received was silence and no movement, the boy genius sighed. Stepping into the tense room noiselessly, he landed on the other's bed, the wind from the outside world brushing against his haori via the window. The natural air-conditioner strengthened as the weather manipulator inched closer towards the still substitute shinigami, narrowing his eyes as his gaze fell on him. He felt his fingers curl into fists, but did nothing to unfurl them. He looked into the once bright, blazing eyes of chocolate brown, only to find confusion and some sort of emptiness held within them. "Are you going to sit here forever, Kurosaki?" he asked, receiving a stare as a reply. "Well? I believe I have enough silence from someone who is supposedly a loud, obnoxious idiot around here."

"Did...did Inoue leave?"

Hitsugaya remained as cold as possible, "We don't know for sure unless we go. Now." He paused and continued a few seconds later, "I don't get why you're acting stupider than you usually do today, but I'm not tolerating no for an answer, nor do I want you to ask me questions. I should be the one doing that." Ichigo's brows raised; he finally got his attention, Hitsugaya mentally sighed. He could hear Hyourinmaru heave a sigh at the back of his head as well; most likely, he tried reaching out for Zangetsu, and succeeded to get the teenager up. He thanked the dragon, and stared down at the perplexed strawberry.

Indeed...he had a lot to ask. Grabbing Ichigo by the collar, he shunpo-ed out of the human's room and landed on the invisible spirit particles in the atmosphere, loosing his grip on the other's collar but not letting go. They stood there, silhouettes stretching out as the sun began to illuminate the night sky into an ice blue hue while the serpentine clouds swirled about above them. He watched Kurosaki sternly, folding his arms and hardening his gaze on him. But the substitute still made no comment after the sudden turn of events after awakening to the familiar reiatsu to the fact that a little shrimp had just dragged him out of his own room.

"Where the hell have you been all this time, you idiot?" Hitsugaya asked, voice demanding and harsh. Ichigo merely gave him an unexplainable glance, but that was it. "...You've got guts, Kurosaki. You've got guts to make everyone worry about your disappearance like that. Then you suddenly show up and let your reiatsu leak as if nothing's happened. Don't think no one from my side noticed. Even until now, I can sense your reiatsu spilling out all over like a burst pipe. And there is another matter concerning that," he added, not willing to let the moron interrupt him. "Your reiatsu...though it was definitely of great level, it is now slightly different than what I usually sense when I first got a lock on your reiatsu. I can't exactly explain it in words simple enough for you to comprehend, but it is generally more composed and almost twice as powerful than the last time I sensed you.

"...What have you been up to, training secretly?" He wasn't expecting an answer to that, but Ichigo had given the nod nonetheless. Hitsugaya blinked, holding back his shock to keep his usual composure. His shoulders relaxed slightly. "So where were you? Where were you all this time when you claim you have been training?"

This, he needed, no, he demanded an answer, but just as fate took it, he received none. "Not willing to talk?" he asked, voice barely above a whisper that only he and Hyourinmaru could hear, while it kept its iciness. "I see. You're just going to keep quiet, aren't you? You're just going to let me do all the talking, thinking that as long as you keep quiet, you'll be able to avoid answering to my questions. Well, you thought wrong, Kurosaki. I just so happen to be someone who doesn't like doing the questioning and getting silence as the answer; and it just so happens that I understand you well enough that you're not somebody who likes keeping his big mouth shut while in the presence of someone you think you can't confide in.

"True, I'm not your comrade, nor am I an acquaintance. I am not in your circle of friends, and I am definitely not someone who wants to be in that league. However, I can still tell you that I want to know where you have been, and what you have been doing, just like how Kuchiki would want to know. I may not be a friend, but I also need to know what your friends need to know, just like how a superior does his subordinates. That's why, if a subordinate comes into any trouble, he will first tell his superior before anyone else of either the same or lower rank than he is. I can tell at first glance that you've been undergoing a rough experience, but you don't go thinking you can handle it without first telling anyone about it. There **are **some people out there who are worried for you, after all." Ichigo glanced at the tuft of white hair and bearer of piercing emerald orbs standing right before him, taking in a sharp intake of breath before gripping onto his tensing shoulders and pulled him into an embrace. "O-oi, what are you--?"

"Arigatou, Toushirou." Hitsugaya stopped, pondering over the substitute's actions; had he said something heartfelt or something? It was just what he would normally say to anyone, given the circumstances, so why...?

"What are you thanking me for, idiot? It's not your style, to be thanking someone like that," he coolly replied, giving Ichigo a light push off before dusting himself. "You may not belong to any particular division, let alone mine, but I am still your superior, and you should not be so informal to someone of higher rank than you are, substitute shinigami Kurosaki Ichigo. Thanking me is fine, for whatever the reason, but hugging me like that is out of the question."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Toushirou," the orange-haired shinigami replied ever so casually, smirking his big, goofy smirk. "Hey, so you said to find out more, I gotta go with you, right? What are we waiting for, then? Let's go already!"

"...Unhand me this instant, Kurosaki!" He struggled, but the other's grip was hard. Freezing him seemed to be the best thing to do in this kind of situation, but he certainly did not want Kurosaki's hand to stick to his until the ice melted. Then, a ray of realisation dawned upon him. "And anyway, you haven't answered my question yet!"


	7. Welfare

**Welfare**

_As you may have noticed, prologue for trilogy is up. Now unless this one is finished, I will not be giving that one any updates, except for maybe the first two chapters. –shrugs- This one is really short, so I apologise, there really isn't much to touch on… and I do not own Bleach._

…_Oh yes! I have to mention the time frame otherwise it'll get messy. Well, so far, we've been following up to the part Hitsu goes back to Seireitei. However, Hinamori died before Ichigo actually left for Hueco Mundo. I do know in the movie she is mentioned, but let's take it she doesn't exist anymore so that we can all be happy with our own lives. Then we shall __**assume **__everyone got out of Hueco Mundo safely like nothing happened, but that will be from the next chapter onwards._

* * *

There was that matter of waking up in the middle of the night as if something just downright scared her out of her wits, Hitsugaya noticed with a flinch. She would walk down the 4th Division corridor, wander about like some mindless soul, and collapse in the bathroom where her body laid, waiting for a female 4th Division member to enter and notice her there. Even as he witnessed the bun girl loitering around the corner, bags under her lifeless eyes darker than that of a real panda's, the 10th Division captain did nothing to help her. He did not attempt to reach out to her, offering to bring her back to her room, because he knew that even if he tried to mutter a single word, she would ignore him, turn away and bury her face in her knees which she brought up to her chest.

Then there was that matter of sending out shrill cries, giving the 4th Division members on night shift an early Halloween scare. The first person Unohana would notify would always be him; sometimes he wondered why his presence was just so much desired around the hospital of Seireitei, other times he would simply oblige, stand there so helplessly and watch them pin the young hazelnut-haired girl down, injecting a serum of some sort into her skin. He daren't look. He daren't turn away either. Hyourinmaru would offer his words of comfort, embrace him with its wings of ice and distort his vision, just a little would suffice, until the whole ordeal was over.

But then what, he asked, was the ordeal in this case?

He wasn't the one who had a sadistic bastard who wore a mask of kindness as a captain. He wasn't the one who admired this so-called captain of his, if he ever had him as one in the first place, to the point whereby he lost his senses. He wasn't the one who was fatally injured – though, Hitsugaya thought with a resisted wince, that shoulder of his would give him a bit of a set back every now and then – and fell into a comatose state, only to wake up asking where his captain was. Like hell the white-haired taichou was going to acknowledge anyone like Aizen as his superior; he was ashamed enough to have worked alongside this so-called colleague of his. Most of the time he blamed himself for leaving Hinamori in this sadist's hands, thinking that nothing was wrong when in actuality, everything was wrong.

Throughout it all, however, he had not experienced any ordeal as terrible as Hinamori's. There was but one exception which he would like to forget, just for this one night…

For the girl who had grown up with him in Junrinan; for the girl who admired this captain of hers; for the girl whom he swore to protect ever since **that **happened; for the girl whom he loved and regarded as an older sister……had passed away the very night he returned to Seireitei grounds.

Hitsugaya hadn't a clue when it had happened; all he knew was that Unohana sent him a _jigoku chou (hell butterfly) _carrying a message requesting for his immediate presence at the 4th Division just as he was about to finish up the paperwork for the day. By the time he reached there, she was already long gone. The head of the Medical Department had explained that Hinamori's most likely cause of death had been suicide, for a bloodstained razor blade was found lying on the floor next to her bed, her wrist slain with dried blood forming a thick line across, forming a crimson path down the bed sheet. But that wasn't the primary cause of death, Unohana explained. Just as she said, it was most likely suicide, for another reason lied beneath the surface.

She knew it would've had been horrible if she allowed the white-haired genius to take one last look of her before her reishi particles completely disappeared into the energies revolving the land which they stood on. Due to the fact that many people were concerned about her, and were yet informed about her sudden death, Unohana had called for a small group of her seated subordinates to work together and form a special barrier around her to prevent any of her reishi to dissolve, at least, not too soon; the barrier would not hold out for long, and if Hitsugaya allowed it, they would stop maintaining the alternate world of physics that lied within the shell of spiritual power. With slight reluctance, he agreed to take one last glimpse of her face, biting his lower lip until it drew blood as he did so.

The worst of her had not been her mutilated wrist but of her eyes; they were so hollow, so empty…lacking of the usual warmth they usually carried. It was like he was staring into two dull, brown plates of which more than half of their structures had been horribly charred beyond repair. Blood trailed along from the opening of her nose and the edges of her lips, joining in to form the river of blood which pooled around the blade, her jaw hanging open as if in a mid-scream – he closed his eyes; his mind couldn't help but visualize what might've had happened, and he tried as much as he could not to show the wince – and her right hand, used for wielding the blade she ended her own life with, hanging over the edge of the bed sloppily. Hitsugaya sighed, turning away and excused himself from the room, claiming that he had paperwork to do and had to finish it by that night. Unohana took his answer as a yes and asked her subordinates to stop supplying the barrier with reiryoku.

It wasn't that he was afraid of seeing a corpse like that, heck, Aizen's fake one was probably one of the worst he had ever seen. Hitsugaya's fingers curled into clenched fists, Hyourinmaru rattling uneasily on his back; it was just that…..the common characteristic amongst all dead bodies had not been the fact that they were dead, but rather, the most obvious sign to show that they no longer breathed life: the secret lied within the eyes.

Hinamori's eyes…were exactly the same as Kusaka's when he died.

The only difference being, Kusaka's sparked as he fought against death, resulting in his failure to do so when the heavy eyelids drooped over his dulling navy blue orbs. And Hitsugaya, he had seen it all. He had seen the best friend he ever had getting pierced to death right before his own eyes, yet he could not do anything, not with him being restrained he couldn't. By the time he managed to get out of that struggle, it had already been too late. Never again was he going to see his towering friend smile; never again was he going to see him laugh and have fun; never again was he going to hear him call his name. What Hitsugaya would give for just to hear that voice again…

'_Shiro-chan!'_

'_Toushirou!'_

Shaking his head, Hitsugaya moved on. By now, he thought to himself, Hinamori's body should've had disappeared, and became part of the energy flow that held Seireitei together. Either that, or he hoped that she was going to have a good life as a human when the time of reincarnation would arrive for her.

A slight fluctuation in reiatsu attracted him towards his left; it had been the Division of the number six, Kuchiki and Abarai were together as usual, and…was that a senkaimon opening up for them? Hitsugaya stared at the scene of the stoic captain he always knew and respected giving them a few parting words before turning away, apparently muttering something along the lines of 'you will be duly punished when you return'. There wasn't much happening after that, albeit the fact that Kuchiki and Abarai got into quite the heated argument about who was going to beat Ichi-Kurosaki's ass up when they reach Hueco Mundo, and it had been decided that Kuchiki would do the job of slapping the idiot awake. Hitsugaya almost allowed himself a smirk at the thought of the raven-haired subordinate, though much older than him, giving that loony strawberry a tight smack across the face. Almost.

The gates of the senkaimon creaked open, a ray of light bursting out while _jigoku chou _fluttered their wings around the pair. Just as they were about to leap into where the gates would be taking them, a servant – well, he looked like one, judging by the different colored kimono he wore – arrived behind them, asking for them with all due respect to wait for just a moment, and handed them two nicely folded cloths. When asked who supplied them with these, the servant replied with a pang of nervousness that he wasn't allowed to tell and immediately rushed back into the 6th Division barracks. Hitsugaya scoffed, arms folded as he leaned against the bark of a tree nearby, his reiatsu so perfectly masked that not even the two of them had noticed his presence a mere few meters away from them; typical Kuchiki-taichou behavior, he deduced.

However, from the way Abarai looked exceptionally down, the prodigious taichou of the Tenth could only think of one thing: he had already been notified of Hinamori's death. It was understandable, the 6th Division fukutaichou had been Hinamori's classmate, as well as one of her closest friends. The person he dreaded to see most would be Kira, or worse, Kira confiding in Matsumoto and the two of them making a mess out of his office with their bottles of sake. The young wielder of Hyourinmaru merely pushed himself off the tree bark and gave the two of them one last glance before disappearing into the shadows.

* * *

"That bit-uh, Hinamori, has…?"

"Yes. It has been confirmed," Rukia quietly replied, casting her violet eyes away from the orange-haired shinigami sitting comfortably in front of her. The rough, sandy winds brushed against their frames; Ichigo almost cursed when sand got into his eyes, and began rubbing them frantically, only to make them worse. "Though we're not sure what the primary cause of death is, Unohana-taichou suspects that Hinamori-fukutaichou not only cut her own wrist, but also…"

"She indulged in medical drugs behind the 4th Division's back, thinking that they would help her regain her strength faster so that she could come here on her own," Renji continued. "It led to some drug overdose, and when she found that she was dying instead of healing, she decided to end her own life. Well, that's just a theory…by Hitsugaya-taichou."

"Eh? Toushirou?" Ichigo's fingers curled, digging deep into the fabric of his shihakushou. "Then, Toushirou is…"

Rukia and Renji exchanged glances before the former shook her head sadly while the latter simply turned away. "We don't know how Hitsugaya-taichou is taking the matter. We only know that he was the first to be informed when Hinamori-fukutaichou passed on. Frankly speaking, we didn't even get to see her for one last time; Unohana-taichou explained that her reishi had already dissolved, so we went on to looking for you instead."

Silence fell amongst them, time ticking by for a few seconds before Ichigo replied softly, "…I see." Pausing slightly, he turned towards the front. "That little rascal…..I bet he's actually hurting inside, just that he doesn't want to show it. Not like he's the kind who would anyway, but still I'm…worried about him."

"Ichigo…."

"…Maybe…maybe when we all get back home with Inoue, I'll go and see him again." Turning back to face his two friends from Soul Society, a smile played off his face. "He probably won't like an 'idiot' like me worrying about him and all; I bet the first thing he'll say when I get back, and tell him straight that I want him to confide in me, would be, 'You are the king of morons, Kurosaki. And I don't need the king of all stupidity to talk to me about caring about someone else's welfare when he can't handle himself properly and trot all the way to Hueco Mundo'…or something like that."

In the end, in all actuality, all Ichigo really wanted to say was that once this shit was done and over with, he wanted to see that look of annoyance and disbelief on the chibi captain's face again.


	8. Breakfast

**Breakfast**

_This used to be something else altogether, but since I was inspired by a certain cutscene in Heat the Soul 4, I thought: hey, why not? Besides, I have a school project centering the topic of breakfast, like the importance of it and all, so this will help get the brain juices flowing (if I ever had them). I sincerely apologise for lack of updates as well as a possibly crappy quality on this one because I'm rushing to finish it since I have a matter of utmost importance to take care of before I get into trouble. Oh boy. Again, I'm sorry for a lame comeback after so many months of inactivity. This -is- pretty short, mainly because I've lost my touch... -hides away in shame-_

_As always, I don't own Bleach. The whole breakfast idea stemmed from Heat the Soul 4 and my school project, so I practically don't own much or anything at all._

* * *

He pulled apart, dragging his feet along with him, and landed onto the ground elegantly. Ignoring all pairs of eyes on him, the captain of the 10th dashed forward with shunpo, efficiently dodged a ball of ash that was sent hurling towards him, and kicked his opponent off her feet with as much strength as he could muster. The strawberry blonde gave a surprised yelp as her face came kissing to the floor before she gave her belly a good rub and stood against her superior once more. A flying kick came on its way, only to be evaded and returned with a fist, clenched as if ready to give a tight punch. The diminutive white-haired taichou blocked it with the blade of his trustworthy Hyourinmaru and swept Matsumoto off her feet again with his own.

As she fell from a height of no more than four metres and gave the floor a second kiss from her rosy lips, Hitsugaya remained in the air, Hyourinmaru slowly being sheathed back. Dismissing all of the 10th Division members who gathered there, he descended from the ground - not without leaving small, crystalline particles of ice behind, scattering all over the place like a hurricane - and did what any superior would to his subordinate: carry her up from the ground and let her be for the next few moments or so to catch her breath. It was merely a gesture for concern; what else could you expect from the 10th Division captain, who was oh-so infamous for his icy cold glare and, just as cool, personality?

To his surprise, yet not unexpectedly, his fukutaichou came leaping towards him, Haineko in a trail of ashes which came twirling around his thin frame. With his usual scowl, Hitsugaya folded his arms, obviously unwilling to draw out the dragon at this point of time. Yet with Matsumoto's strong attempts to do so, he found it harder to restrain himself from unsheathing Hyourinmaru each time the ash cat pounced on him.

While it was annoying, to say the least, the young prodigy also found it a bit of an amusement; his lieutenant was actually getting pretty good.

It wouldn't be that long for her to figure out that he had been holding back all this while, but it was a delight for any superior to know that his subordinate was improving despite that. It had merely been three weeks since she expressed her desire to attain bankai (or was it the other way around?) and it had been within those three weeks did she show that she meant what she had said. Hitsugaya couldn't tell for sure how long Matsumoto has had her zanpakutou kept in shikai form, but from what he had witnessed, it was blatantly obvious for all to see that the buxom fukutaichou, notorious for her laziness and addiction to sake, had gotten herself secretly involved in intensive training for approximately a lap of six years for bankai. It wasn't much, but it was still, without a doubt, six years closer towards the minimum requirement.

Smirking inwardly, the prodigious taichou pulled off a sneaky shunpo, appearing behind Matsumoto in a split second before sending her hurdling towards the ground once again. Judging by how carelessly they were allowing their reiatsu to spill - Matsumoto's evidently more than her captain's own - the proclaimed secret training between a taichou and a fukutaichou would be made known to the whole of Seireitei unless that sake-obsessed lieutenant of his was willing to keep her zanpakutou in check. Ashes were scattered all over the 10th Division training grounds like how Kuchiki's Senbonzakura petals did to the 6th Division's, albeit much more sloppily in terms of appearance.

Then, again, with newfound determination, Matsumoto literally sprang into action and whipped out a few more balls of ashes which Hitsugaya so easily shielded himself from. Just as he was about to end the training session, his body tensed up and allowed his opponent the opening to hurl a manisfestation of an ashy cat towards him. Landing on his back, the white-haired taichou spat out what he had been keeping in enclosed throughout the entire battle, and gave his subordinate one of the greatest shocks in her 10th Division fukutaichou life.

"Taichou...is that--?"

"Shut up, Matsumoto," he ordered coldly, wiping the crimson trail away from the edge of his lips.

"But, but taichou, I never knew I was--oh my gawd, taichou, I'm so sorry..." On the brink of weeping, she came closer towards her captain and smuggled him into her valleys of doom, as dubbed by none other than the victim himself.

Simply pushing her away from him, Hitsugaya clutched his stomach and brushed away a bit more of the blood away from his mouth. As the familiar metallic taste came travelling up the back of his throat, he resisted a gag and immediately dismissed her back to her office, only to get a disapproval and yet another hug. It was only when he started to cough from lack of oxygen did she halt all actions.

"I need to bring you to Unohana-taichou. Maybe she knows what's wrong with you."

A glare came sending ghostly chills down her spine. "Whoever said something was wrong with me?"

The strawberry blonde gave him a 'duh' expression which he easily ignored. It was then Matsumoto began to let her thinking do all of the talking; she observed every single of her taichou's actions: the way he was behaving, which included his exceptional crabbiness, the way he was clutching onto his stomach, trying hard not to wince, and even the way he was leaning against the wooden pillar which was holding the building altogether. Those were certainly not what she would call 'nothing wrong' in her books. Thinking back, then, she remembered how her beloved captain would start acting like this during summer and extremely hot days, minus the suspicious spitting of blood, but the unusual 'ailment' didn't act up even when they were assigned to go to the real world. Whenever they were dispatched to take care of some important business over the borders, her captain would never cease to worry her when he started letting the crimson rivers flow from his mouth even when they were battling an ordinary hollow.

For Hitsugaya-taichou to have this from acting up again...there could only be one good reason.

Grinning slyly, Matsumoto edged closer towards her captain and poked him in the shoulder. "Taichou, you didn't take your breakfast again, did you?" When her question was met with silence and another death arrow shot at her, she began her victory dance. "I knew it! Whenever you don't take your breakfast for months, all this worrying things start happening! You have to **stop doing that**, taichou! Don't you know breakfast is an essential meal of the day?"

"Matsumoto..." he growled softly, refusing to let go of his stomach even though he felt obliged to.

"It's extremely healthy to have your breakfast, taichou. After all, it stimulates the brain, you know. Or at least, that's what Ichigo-kun told me when I told him that you had the bad habit of skipping your breakfast all the time."

"...I don't remember giving you permission to tell him."

"Ah, but it was a good thing I did, taichou!" Matsumoto continued, acting complete feignence to Hitsugaya's rising tone. "Ichigo-kun was worried for you, so every day he got up bright and early just to prepare a good breakfast for you. Remember how I always gave you breakfast and told you it was Orihime's special cooking? It was actually from Ichigo-kun. You should be touched to have me and Ichigo-kun by your side, taichou."

"You forgot horrified..." he whispered under his breath, this time folding his arms and glaring at the pebbles on the ground for no reason in particular.

"And remember, taichou, I told you that if you don't eat breakfast, you won't be able to fight at full strength. You don't want Ichigo-kun to see you fainting in the middle of a fight just because you didn't eat something," she teased in a sing-song voice which caused her taichou to snap.

"Why are you even bringing that moron into the conversation anyway!?"

"Hahh? Isn't it obvious, taichou?" Matsumoto winked. "You like him!"

A scarlet flush tainted the young captain's cheeks, causing the Shinigami Women's Association member's heart to pump like mad from the utter excitement the breaking news she could bring there during the next meeting. The snow-haired child prodigy declined Hyourinmaru's request to turn away and shunpo back into the office because that would just be what his lieutenant was expecting, and he wasn't about to fill her head with senseless ideas which didn't even make up the truth. No, he was just going to stay there and show her that her way of thinking was completely wired up and needed someone to knock the sense back into her like a mechanic would to a robot gone wild; likewise he was going to stand and stay, and begin his list of reasons to prove that his fukutaichou's whacked up theory was wrong.

* * *

The very next morning, Hitsugaya Toushirou took the world by surprise when he turned up late for the captain's meeting with the sole excuse that he was trying to smuggle his way out of the division kitchen with his breakfast in tow.


	9. Subzero

**Subzero**

_One time I was so sick with fever that I went extremely high, and then this came up so forgive me if the quality sucks since I wrote it while I was delirious with fever (I wrote this months ago but never got down to posting it because I wanted to follow a chronological order). I did do some touching up while in a much calmer state. One important thing to note is, well, in most of my fanfics centering IchiHitsuKusa will take place after the Hueco Mundo arc, but with the fake assumption that everyone got out safely and there is no fight we see in the current manga. Inoue is out safe and sound -coughs- and no one was stuck in Hueco Mundo or anything._

_As for D-Dust, I'm assuming it took place right before the Winter War. This chapter's setting is right after everyone gets out of Hueco Mundo. So as usual I don't own Bleach._

* * *

Ichigo wouldn't deny it. He was sick. Oh so horribly sick.

He was ill with a temperature exceeding the danger zone of 39 degrees C, a scalded throat that felt like it was still on the frying pan, and red, puffy eyes like tomatoes, only without the juiciness of the vegetable. Awakening to a flaming body since two days ago, the orange-haired substitute shinigami became extremely agitated to find his father still in his almightly fatherly-ness smacking him in the face and knock him out completely. The old man, as Karin had explained to him, was so worried he did a ridiculous dance down the stairs, picked up the nearest connected microphone and declared to the world that his 'little Ichigo was about to die from a terminal disease'. It annoyed the aforementioned strawberry to no end.

Coughing, he turned to his left and blocked out the cold by quickly hiding under the covers. As it got warmer and warmer, the frustrated Ichigo stuck his head out and inhaled deeply. Arm dangling by the edge of his bed like a bag of skin without the bones, the exceedingly feverish strawberry reached out to the controller and let it slip beneath his grasp as it fell to the ground, its cover breaking off and exposing the batteries. Sighing in frustration, he picked it up again and pressed on the button. Nothing happened. The beeping was audible, but the damned appliance was not.responding.at.all.

"Damn you, you bloody piece of shi--"

His sentence was cut off by the sudden freeze in the room from the air-conditioner which was switched to full blast. Quickly evading from the chill, Ichigo ducked under the covers, shivering as he determinedly tried to get the temperature lowered but to no true avail. His blood vessels seemed to tingle with a pinch of iciness and his stomach was continuously churning with whatever he ate for breakfast.

_Stupid fever...stupid stomach...stupid headache...stupid Dad..._

Speaking of his dear ol' man, it seemed that he made the nice fatherly decision to forgo seeing patients that day in order to spend all of his time with his sick son and make a poor attempt to literally kiss the fever away. As if any doctor would be in the right frame of mind to do that, Ichigo mentally scoffed as he turned over, still coldly stunned by the air-con's full blast; the last thing he needed was his dad barging in and mouth-feeding him with porridge which was, by the way, probably the worst meal his lunatic of a father made in the history of bad meals his lunatic of a father made.

...Not to mention that his reiatsu was flaring and attracting all hollows charging in the direction towards his house. If it was anything the so-called protector needed, it was an ice pack and a virtue known as appreciation embedded into that thick skull of his.

Growling, Ichigo popped his head out like a turtle out of its shell, snatched his pillow and buried his face deep into it, deafening his ears with the melody of silence when his father's muffled yells and Yuzu's protests - and the hollows' cold-blooded roars, to add on to his misery - all came into one large mixing bowl and became victim to a whisk. And as such, while his nerves were finally loosening and allowing his tense shoulders to relax slightly, he failed to notice the sound of the window opening with a light pang to the windowpane. Neither did he notice the hollows' reiatsu speedily depleting as if they never were there in the first place, as if they had all been purified and sent to Soul Society (or Hell) simultaneously.

Unbeknownst to the patient, who had tossed over and exposed his sweaty face to the chilled atmosphere in his room, a tender yet bony finger tapped his forehead before the entire palm rested against it. If the intruder knew any better, it was to leave the pissed strawberry alone to deal with his pain and suffering, but nooo, he just **had **to succumb to his temptations, as a certain piglet dubbed it, and come here to 'check on him'. And now that he's had landed his piercing emerald jewels on that face contorted in what seemed to be a mix of frustration and body ache, he couldn't help but think of a way to help relieve the pain - just a little would do.

Hitsugaya allowed himself a soft, yet irate, sigh as he felt a minute amount of his icy reiatsu flow out of his body and into Kurosaki's own, seemingly against his own wishes to do so when he gave the zanpakutou strapped to his back the wary eye. _Oh, come now, the poor thing is practically bathing in a stream of magma. The least we could do for him is to cool him down a bit._

_You mean the least **you **could do. I play no part in this._

_And you would say that you don't care about his well-being, young one? Now do entertain my questions: who was the one who became extremely hostile towards anyone who spoke of Kurosaki Ichigo? Who was the one who caused so many thunderstorms in Soul Society recently? And who was the one who attempted to jump into Hueco Mundo and chase after him all because you wanted to give him a punch in the face?_

_...Shut up, Hyourinmaru._

_I'm telling you, kozou, if you're really interested, you'd better start soon, otherwise you may live to regret it later when he gets hooked with someone else._

And Hyourinmaru left the conversation at that; he didn't seem to be all too eager for a longer chat than it already was, the white-haired taichou noticed with a slight sting when a migraine acted up. Glancing at his hand placed on Kurosaki's forehead, his snow white brows furrowed and his expression darkened slightly. With a tinge of red staining his cheeks, Hitsugaya removed his hand and, with no certain concern directed towards the sleeping strawberry whatsoever, lowered the temperature of the room before shunpo-ing out of the house, closing the window behind him. His scowl deepened.

The idiot still didn't give a bloody damn as to what was happening around him.

* * *

It had been a week since the fever incident with Ichigo. When he was deemed well enough, he, along with Rukia, Renji, Ishida, Chad and Inoue, were invited to Seireitei's captain meeting hall as the soutaichou had emphasized that their presence was absolutely necessary, otherwise they would have to call off the meeting and host it another day. Initially, Ichigo and Ishida were slightly reluctant to leave Karakura but after thinking about the matter intensively - more of wondering why the heck they were so crucial to the meeting - they finally decided to enter the senkaimon leading to Soul Society.

To the orange-haired adolescent's child-like surprise, the familiar white-haired captain who would never fail to be punctual for a single meeting actually didn't turn up throughout the whole meeting at all. He could not even sense the slightest of ice cold reiatsu except for Rukia's own, but that was a different thing altogether.

In the end, the meeting was about whether to punish the group heavily for entering Hueco Mundo's sandy grounds and stepping foot into Las Noches, as well as bringing a small infant friend back to Karakura with them, but it was decided that Ichigo be stripped of his substitute shinigami duties for two weeks with Rukia and Renji to stay put in Karakura with him during the two-week period solely to make sure that he adhered to the punishment - it wasn't **specified **whether they could handle any hollow threats during the two weeks. Since the rest were not part of the Gotei 13, they were spared of any punishment, but Inoue was to be kept enclosed within Seireitei grounds as a precaution against Aizen should he dare attempt to take her hostage again.

And then--

"U-Unohana-taichou! It's terrible! Hitsugaya-taichou is freezing the 10th Division barracks -- again!"

"Prepare a stronger dosage of flu medicine," the raven-haired doctor replied her subordinate calmly, stepping out from her line of the captains after she gained permission from Yamamoto. "Is he still showing any of the symptoms?"

"Y-yes! He's still in a bad shape, taichou; coughing, sneezing, and his fever is approaching the dangerous limit." In other words, Unohana Retsu, _the _Unohana Retsu, had prescribed the aforementioned chibi taichou medicine that was not showing any positive effect.

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold on!" Ichigo exclaimed with a flush, raising his hands in the air and swinging them in protest. "What the hell's going on? What's wrong with Toushirou?"

"Oh ho ho, you don't know?" enquired the sadistic scientist of the 12th Division, who was rubbing his chin with a bone white finger. "Then again, since you were the one who passed the virus to him, you were completely oblivious. I've checked a sample of the child's reiatsu and I must say, it gave me quite the interesting result." Before letting anyone speak, Mayuri chuckled and explained, "Hitsugaya-taichou and his fukutaichou were sent out to Karakura Town to dispose of a reasonably high number of hollows of all levels and were responsible for investigating the cause, as what the 10th Division is supposed to do. For some reason, when he returned to Seireitei, he began developing symptoms of a rare flu which affects only shinigami with captain-class reiatsu. As I was extremely intrigued by this illness since I was coincidentally researching it--"

Zaraki scoffed at the choice of Kurotsuchi's words to which the masked captain glared and continued, "--I picked up a small sample of his reiatsu's solid deposits and discovered that not only was his reiatsu infected with the virus, but also a foreign reiatsu strand located in his own. My hypothesis is that Hitsugaya-taichou must've had unknowingly came into **close **contact with the carrier of the flu and I can declare that my hypothesis is proven - you, Kurosaki Ichigo, are that very person who infected Hitsugaya-taichou with the virus."

Silence sank in as the crickets chirped the song of love towards each other. All pairs of eyes were on the orange-haired strawberry.

It didn't take very long before the accused scratched his head, brows furrowed and corners of his eyes twitching slightly.

"...Huh? The hell you're talking about?"


	10. Encounter

**Encounter**

_This will be kept short because I re-wrote the whole thing. Gomen... This is due to the fact that from the Soul Society arc till now, we're still not sure how Ichigo and Hitsugaya met. It was hinted in Heat the Soul 2, so I'll be making some referrence to it. Let's just say that their first encounter was...amusing. To say the least XD Too bad I had to fight Ichigo, though. Disclaimer: Bleach is getting better. I am getting worse. See the connection? Yes? Good. This chapter is sort of a continuation from the previous one. All I have to say is...poor Hitsugaya._

* * *

His shift should've had been over hours ago.

Scratch that, he wasn't even supposed to be here in the first place. His intention for coming to Soul Society was merely to have a sneak preview of what the old head captain had in store for him and his friends. The idiotic strawberry had no idea what had happened to the famous boy genius of the Tenth Division before he came and now he was to watch over the unconscious taichou until the shift Unohana assigned to him was over, which was allegedly three and a half hours ago. She warned him, with a tinge of chemically explosive danger flashing in her assumingly kind, motherly eyes, that if he were to take one brave step out of the ward, she would have no guarantee which of the wards specially assigned to the Eleventh Division members he would end up in as a result.

At least it wasn't as hot and stuffy here as the world outside. Fortunately - unfortunately, rather - for Ichigo, Hitsugaya was having such a dangerously high fever that not only was he knocked out cold, but he was also subconsciously letting the dragon-like might of his icy reiatsu leak out into the ward, and slowly yet unknowingly freezing the compounds of the medical division. The orange head couldn't ask for any better, though he did wish that Toushirou would wake up as soon as possible and seal the reiatsu back.

"A-ah, Ichigo-san!" The timid Fourth Seat Hanatarou scampered into the room, closing the door behind him with a tray of medicine and pills in tow. Ichigo turned, a blank look plastered all over his face. "_Anou..._Unohana-taichou said that you don't need to worry about Hitsugaya-taichou. He would be fine after resting here for a few more days. And, um...ah, she also said that if you want, you can leave now. _Ano--_Ichigo-san...?"

Said strawberry made no gesture or reply. He only kept his chocolate brown eyes glued to the sleeping figure of the Tenth Division captain lying on the bed - whilst thinking about how adorably peaceful the snow angel looked like when he was sleeping - and another chain of thoughts and images flashing in his mind a split second later.

"...Hanatarou."

"Ah, hai, I-Ichigo-san?"

"You remember that day? Sometime after I first came here?"

* * *

_Ichigo would've had, admittedly, gotten lost in the many interlocked paths and corridors of Seireitei if not for the presence of his mousy newfound shinigami friend running for his life behind him. While it was true that Hanatarou did not know exactly which path led to which due to his nature of fearfully staying away from the boundaries of the fiercer and more violent divisions, at least he had the vague idea of excellent places to hide from the crowds of shinigami lusting after Kurosaki's blood with hope of gaining some sort of a reward for slaying the orange-haired ryoka. The underground used to be the best hiding spot until the big idiot known as Kurosaki Ichigo decided that it was pointless hiding throughout the day when he could make use of the time to look for Rukia and the rest of his friends and get out of the horrendous Soul Society more quickly than he anticipated. Yes, it was this thoughtlessness that led him to where he was at the moment._

_It was rather, no, extremely unlucky for them to chance upon the entrance to the Eleventh Division's barracks - Hanatarou figured that he should better himself by using the underground paths more often to familiarise with Seireitei more - once they stepped out into the daylight. All shinigami on duty started charging after them with their katana unsheathed and their bloodthirstiness revived. When Ichigo defeated one out of the many hundreds, ten or twenty more would join in the pleasure of lunging after their sole prey._

_"Damn the annoying bastards!" he yelled out after grabbing Hanatarou and slashing a Getsuga Tenshou at the growing crowd of shinigami. He repeated his action until all shinigami were knocked off their feet and sent flying into the air or collapsing into the walls. With only three left following, the orange-haired strawberry smirked at his achievement and sent one final Getsuga Tenshou to take them out before placing Zangetsu back in its original position. "Oh finally... Can the day get any worse?"_

_As if answering to his question, Hanatarou gave a soft gasp while being smuggled under Ichigo's left arm. "I-Ichigo-san, you're heading into--"_

_"Stop right there, ryoka."_

_Upon hearing a foreign voice cut off the Fourth Division member in mid-sentence, Ichigo forced himself to halt to a stop, his feet dragging along the ground and drawing dust and sand particles from it. As he layed his inquisitive, chocolate brown eyes on the lithe yet seemingly commanding figure standing not further than ten feet away from him, he blinked. And blinked. The person who apparently attempted to stop them in their path didn't seem like he was any older than a regular twelve-year-old in human standard. If he had to be frank, the shinigami sounded like a mature adult stuck in a body of a child._

_Then again, shinigami age at a much slower rate than humans do. Rukia was the perfect example right from the start; if she was at least ten times as old as he was, he didn't need to guess what age the snow white-haired shinigami was. That marshmallow-like hair was astoundingly pure from any dirt particles, Ichigo noted while staring into the sharp, piercing turquoise-teal orbs glaring back at him. The only thing about him, other than the fierce aura he was giving off, that attracted the orange-haired ryoka was that white cloak of some sort. He hadn't seen any other shinigami wearing a particular white cloak. Did that mean...?_

_"Hi...Hitsugaya-taichou!"_

Did Hanatarou just say 'taichou'? _Ichigo's eyes widened slightly, still staring at the seemingly younger one in front of him._

_"Juuban tai taichou, Hitsugaya Toushirou," the aforementioned taichou merely scoffed under his breath, arms stubbornly folded. He continued glaring. "Oi, ryoka, if you must know, I won't let you get past me. I don't know what you're after but I do know that my duty is to stop and capture you, so you can choose to leave Soul Society right now."_

_"I won't! I have to save Rukia!" was the first thing that came out of Ichigo's lips, his right hand naturally grabbing the hilt of Zangetsu strapped to his back._

_Hitsugaya sighed, "It can't be helped." That was when he noticed; the taichou wore his zanpakutou just like he did. It was strapped to his back with support from the forest green sash he slung across his shoulder and the golden pin attached at the centre. The atmospheric air surrounding them visibly froze and falling back to the earth as particles of ice, shattering. Ichigo was stunned rooted to his spot as the ice-like reiatsu began engulfing him - and it didn't look like the little one (what was his name again?) was releasing any reiatsu at all. "I'll kill you if I have to, then."_

* * *

Even till now, the memory of what occurred after the short fight was nothing but a haze to him. All he could remember was Hanatarou calling out his name while begging the white-haired taichou to stop before he totally blacked out from reality. The next thing he knew, he was recuperating with the raven-haired Fourth Division's Fourth Seated Officer loyally attending to the wounds from the battle. Whenever Ichigo tried to ask, Hanatarou would either change the subject or pretend that he knew nothing when it was blatantly obvious that he was present throughout whatever had happened that day.

"...Ichigo-san, do you really want to know what happened?" the mousy healer asked, playing with his fingers.

"Hah? Of course I do," the eldest of the Kurosaki siblings replied with a raised eyebrow. _More than anything._

"U-umm...well, the truth is..."

* * *

_A/N: As I promised, there will be a continuation to this. The next prompt will be about Ichigo's violent reaction to whatever Hanatarou informed him about XD Don't worry, Toushi-chan will be actively conscious throughout the next chapter (though there are no promises about that since I'm so evil) so you can expect an insult or two from him. Sorry, this chapter seemed very abrupt...I am getting worse, after all. Eh, I think there are two more chapters before the previews end, so I can get back to working on Spiritual Bond. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing._


	11. Impression

**Impression**

_Ok...this is the second last chapter before the ending of this preview compilation. Just a note, they will be extremely short, almost dialogue-full kind of chapters, so reviewing really isn't that necessary. This compilation exists because mentionings will be in future Bleach fics and to save me time from thinking them up just for the stories' sake. Eh, suddenly I don't understand what I'm saying anymore... Oh yeah, one note: there is a mentioning of a scene in Bleach Soul Carnival in this chapter which will be chock full of dialogue (my writing juices are spilled all over the other multi-chaptered stories). More elaboration later._

_I do not own Bleach or any of its affiliated characters, blah blah blah... I own only the plot. Oh wait, the core of this plot is also in the game. Ok fine, I don't own anything._

_

* * *

_

The blanket of ebony velvet stretched across from the horizon, shrouding the setting sun and bringing out the strong emphasis on the pearl white moonlight dawning upon a selected number of division buildings, one of which had been the head office of the Tenth Division. The dimly-lit room had begun leaking out bits and traces of reiatsu, but nothing which could arouse the attention of the patrol squad moving about from division to division, their feet dragging along on the sandy grounds and kicking the petite pebbles around. It wasn't long before the tiny flame in the room was put out, and engulfed it with the midnight darkness. One could only imagine how the drinking party Matsumoto held in the absence of her beloved taichou, who was still recuperating from the sudden illness in the Fourth Division, had ended, seeing that none of the invited parties stumbled out and fell to the ground with vomit trickling down the corners of their mouths - which was pretty much what some of the patrollers observed in the past few nights.

They could only hope that nothing happened between the drop-dead gorgeous strawberry blonde and her pack of drunkard male friends.

Upon setting his glance at the darkened room, Hitsugaya turned, his back facing whatever was left of his office, and was on his way back to the Fourth Division. Thank goodness no one was around to witness him leaping out from the window of the ward and keeping a close eye on his fukutaichou. Without a doubt, the white-haired prodigy was disappointed every night to see that the lazy sow was drinking her time away and not spending any on the piling reports and paperwork.

Just as he was making a futile effort to climb his way back into the ward through the same window he jumped out from, a pair of warm arms dragged him down and set him on the ground, causing him to glare at his attacker whilst rubbing his back. The person he least expected to see had been the very same person who visited him day and night, in and out of the room, and pacing up and down along the corridors.

"What do you think you're doing, Kurosaki?" he asked in a demanding tone, leaning against the wall as he stood back on his feet, only to have the taller push him back down. Piercing emeralds shot death daggers at him, but the latter did not back down, nor did he flinch like he usually would.

"That's what I should be asking you."

The young dragon turned, ignoring the presence of the other, and leapt back into the room from the edge of the window. As one would expect, Ichigo followed suit. Resisting the urge to yell at the orange head, Hitsugaya staggered back to the bed and sat at the corner, his arms folded and eyes closed while white brows furrowed and etching the frown deeply into his otherwise youthful and child-like features. "...Go away," he mumbled after a ten minute-period of silence. He didn't care how childish those two words sounded; all he wanted was for Kurosaki to, really, go away and leave him alone.

Obviously, the strawberry was more than unwilling to leave the seemingly younger alone. "Not until you answer my question, Toushirou." Folding his arms as well, Ichigo grunted and sat beside the other, with Hitsugaya evidently inching away while keeping his position firm. Sighing, Ichigo continued, "Fine, I'll just assume that you left the Fourth Division on your own just to check on Rangiku-san. And I'll also just assume that you're acting so cold and immature towards everyone because you don't want them to think of you as a child who can't even tackle a little flu like this. But I sure as hell won't just simply assume that you put in a good word for me in front of the old geezer only because Rukia begged you to."

When his statements were answered with silence, the redhead groaned and scratched the back of his head. "Look, it's not like I really wanna know why you did that..." In mid-sentence, he caught the sharp glare of utter coldness from the ice prince and cringed slightly. "Ok, fine, maybe I do, but that has nothing to do with this. All I want to say is, uh, you...you don't need to continue acting this way. I know I caused you to have this stupid illness, and I admit that time, when everyone was training hard for the winter battle, I was sort of, well, wrong to barge in and start attacking everyone in the midst of their training blindly even when you warned me not to. What? Wait, I don't even know what the hell I'm saying anymore..."

Hitsugaya shifted slightly, biting his lower lip and turning his head away. "If you really want to know..."

"Eh?"

"...If you really want to know...why I said that about you in front of Yamamoto-soutaichou, it's because..." Drawing blood from his lip, shoulders tensing, and eyebrow twitching, the white-haired captain fully turned away from the inquisitive strawberry while a bright flush swept across his features. "...It's because you're an idiot. An idiot...who needs a bit of complimenting every now and then in order for your brain to grow."

"Geez, if you want to insult my IQ that much, you can just say so," grumbling to himself, Ichigo rested his chin on his palm, before the corners of his lips curled to a soft smile. Stealing a glance at the lithe figure whose back was still facing him, he grinned even more and made himself feel comfortable by sitting further in on the bed. "Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is, whatever your reason was for praising me, and whatever your reason was for saving me back when I first came to Soul Society--" At the mentioning of that incident, Hitsugaya visibly stiffened. "--and whatever your reason was for doing so much for me...thank you, Toushirou."

Said chibi huffed and sat further in on the bed as well, his face still unwilling to turn around.

"Seriously, you're acting like Karin when she loses a soccer match mixed with Yuzu whenever I reach home late. Alright, if you wanna act that way, it's fine by me, Toushirou," Ichigo admitted with a smirk, which seemed slightly wrong in that kind of situation he was in, what with the icy reiatsu suddenly fluctuating and turning the entire ward into the North Pole. "But just so you know, I ain't gonna leave you alone. I don't want you leaving your ward, walking around Seireitei and scaring the shit out of everybody with that kind of face of yours."

"...And just what is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing."

* * *

_In Soul Carnival, when you reach a certain stage in SS, Hitsugaya informs Ichigo that everyone is busy training. There was something along the lines of the Fourth Division being involved but since my Jap isn't very fluent, I don't really understand it. Anyway, he warns Ichigo not to act so rashly as he always does and wants him to leave the trainees alone, but as we all know Ichigo, he won't do that, will he. He asks to be part of the training and Hitsu says, "...Do what you like." and leaves him alone. After you slash at practically everyone, you meet a really pissed Hitsu and then you fight. After you defeat him, he tells you that Yamamoto is at the Soukyoku Hill (either that or you automatically have to go to the hill, I can't remember) and there, Yamamoto says something like, "Ah, you've come. I heard from Hitsugaya-taichou about -insert praises here-" and Ichigo sweat drops and mutters, "Eh? He said that?"_

_If that's not an IchiHitsu scene, I don't know what is._


	12. Farewell

_This is it, the final chapter to Wheel of Fortune. You can expect a fresh chapter out from the oven soon after I post this final entry. Yes, Spiritual Bond will finally get an update which was supposed to have been put up months ago, but I had to keep the suspense in tune because if WoF isn't complete, putting the first chapter up would induce confusion. Alot of it. Especially since the first chapter confused even me._

_Here we go, onto the final chapter of a story. It seems like ages since I last changed a story status to complete. It melts my heart whenever I do it. Remember, universal disclaimer in profile._

* * *

**Wheel of Fortune ~Le Finale**

**Farewell**

* * *

_"I did say that we had to--"_

_"But why on earth would Toushirou even...?"_

_"...protect..."_

_"You can't change anything, boy. He's already--"_

_"And now we come to this where we--"_

_"I don't believe you."_

_"Life is like a wheel of fortune, child. Where there are good things, there come bad things."_

_"...fate...gone...dead..."_

_"Don't...revenge...kill...I lo--"_

'So this is farewell.'

* * *

_Tick..._

It was reaching seven, and there was no sight of him at all. He must still be cooped up in his office, Ichigo mused, doing the endless piles of paperwork all by himself with no Rangiku-san or anyone to help him. Not that anyone could blame him for being late. The teen merely shrugged and got ready to go on stage.

_Tock..._

His performance was next in line. Ishida had been long prepared - both physically and mentally - for the night's performance, and was ready to end off with a bang if only Kurosaki was willing to co-operate. Heck no, the substitute shinigami remembered him retorting back at the Quincy's words, if it weren't for the fact that practically all the girls in our school voted for us to sing a duet together, I wouldn't be here next to you.

_Tick..._

You're just so believable, Ishida sighed to himself, almost murmuring it under his breath and shaking his head as he stood up and got onto stage. It took the orange-head another moment or two before he caught the microphone tossed at him and followed up the steps, brows furrowing into his trademark scowl. He scanned the audience, and even the back of the hall to be safe; forty-five minutes past seven, and still not here yet. His frown deepened.

_Tock..._

It was long past eight. Ichigo took a breather out with a soda, slurping it as he leaned against the railing. The pale, marble-like glow seeping through the edges of the gloom clouds lighted his slightly tanned skin, allowing the chill moonlight use his arm as the stage while the dust danced about in the spotlight. He took another sip, and another, watching the dust particles with intense concentration. It was broken when a violet moth, its wings fluttering with such strength that it swept the dust particles away, perching itself on Ichigo's finger. Scratching his head, the adolescent took off, hurling the tin can towards the bin. The delicate insect took off.

_Tick..._

Many of his soon-to-be former classmates crowded around him for his autograph, exclaiming that they would be his first batch of fans if he ever considered taking the path to be a rock star. Ichigo inwardly smirked at it, and he could tell that Shirosaki was laughing about it, too. Now he didn't bother glancing as he took each and every single piece of paper, signing on it.

_Tock..._

It only took the closing ceremony to give Ichigo his cue to bid farewell to his friends. Some were going to a different school from his; a few were migrating with their families to other countries like America or England; a handful would be walking home with him to continue their little party; and the others were going home to continue packing for boarding school. Ichigo said his share of goodbyes to every single person who had walked down this road with him, and received the same amount of goodbyes with equal warmth and sincerity. There was but one more person he wanted to say goodbye to; however, he saw that it was no longer possible.

_Tick..._

By the time he reached home, he retreated back into his room and instructed Ishida and Chad to make themselves comfortable while Inoue volunteered to make everyone supper. Keigo and Mizuiro simply flicked the television set on and flipped through every flashing channel, hoping to find out which screamed excitement and horror. Ichigo didn't bother switching the bedroom lights on, leaping onto his bed and peering out of his window at the night sky. It was far past nine.

_Tock..._

The mini-party ended at eleven sharp. Everyone but Ishida decided to spend the night at the Kurosaki residence; Ichigo merely gave a shrug, grabbing another soda and retreating into his room once more. He claimed to be getting his sleeping bag down to the living room, but none of his friends witnessed him coming down again.

_Tick..._

Crickets chirping into the distance kept the substitute shinigami awake. Insomnia, he figured, was nothing big, especially since the graduation night was rather chaotic. He still couldn't get the rock music out of his brain; slithering off his bed, he hustled with his school bag for his phone. A blinking message greeted him. Hazelnut eyes instantly widened at the sender's name, fingers busily clicking for the message to be read as he mouthed it silently.

_Ichigo,_

_I know you asked Hitsugaya-taichou out for your graduation ceremony, and I know you must've been waiting for him to turn up. He might not have told you, but he has been ordered to be in charge of a top secret mission by the Royal family and couldn't make it for your graduation night. He didn't say anything else, but I know that, deep down, he wanted to apologise to you, knowing that he had promised to be there. Maybe you could try contacting him before midnight to say that you understand. I've sent a hell butterfly over for you to contact him in case you need to. Beyond midnight, none of the Tenth Division shinigami will be around as they have to set off to meet a representative sent by the Royal family, and the journey would take them an extremely long time before they could reach the rendevous. I really hope you can understand Hitsugaya-taichou's predicament and forgive him this time. It takes a lot for someone to say 'I'm sorry'._

_Rukia_

_PS Ichigo, I'm not sure if I should tell you this, but... Well, there's another reason Hitsugaya-taichou couldn't turn up even though he promised he would. It's just a hearsay, but no doubt it would be useful for you in case you want to talk to him. Tomorrow is supposedly the death anniversary of one of his childhood friends. According to Matsumoto-fukutaichou, Hitsugaya-taichou would always confine himself within his captain chambers for a few days unless he had to take care of a compulsory mission. I'm not sure about anything else. Well, good night. Congrats on your graduation._

* * *

"...I never got to say goodbye after all."

"Taichou?"

A silver-haired shinigami turned slightly, his emerald orbs glistening in the pearl white moonlight while his brows remained furrowed, carving a permanent mark on his forehead. The strawberry blonde stepped up towards him, almost reaching out with a quivering arm but quickly withdrew it once she saw the disapproving scowl on his face. She saw him shake his head slightly, muttering something incoherent. Matsumoto inched, Hitsugaya stiffened. The child prodigy swiftly turned back, sending another cold glare towards his fukutaichou.

"Let's go."

"...Understood."

And they took off into the night sky.

* * *

Ichigo whistled for the same hell butterfly he met at the school hours back. It faithfully flew up to him, landing gracefully on his finger. With a rare smile of what appeared to be warmth, he whispered to the butterfly his message and let it soar into the night, awaiting his message to be conveyed.

"Bye, Toushirou. Good luck on your mission," it said, pausing slightly before a sigh could be heard. "Hope to see you again."

* * *

_終わり_


End file.
